We Return To Howton/Houton….. Shapeshifting Jackie Morris…From ‘Emergence’ Magazine….
by Bernie Bell - 09:06 on 19 September 2023
We Return To Howton/Houton…..
Wanting to get out and about on a lovely Autumn day - but both aware of health limitations - we bethought us to return to Howton for another short mooch….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/01/01/a-short-mooch-at-howton/
We parked the car and went to the Ferry Terminal building where there are toilets - and also helpful information boards relating to the near-by islands of Cava, Fara and Rysa Little….
Turning to our left from the pier....
....we set off along the track - and looked across to the Holm of Howton…
…which isn’t exactly an island, being accessible at low tide.
The next visible island is Cava…
....which ‘hides’ Fara/Faray - the spelling appears to differ…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16090
Along the way, we came across two stoat traps…
The second one is quite artistically camouflaged….
I saw a face the metal plate…
I see faces everywhere!
It’s particularly important to prevent stoats from crossing to the un-inhabited islands as they are havens for wildlife.
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16248
A fence blocked our path so, after looking across to the cliffs which we walk along from the Breck to the Bu in Orphir…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/09/09/breck-to-bu-and-back-again/
….we walked back along the stony beach and through a gap in some anti-submarine netting….
Remembering that this stretch of coast line is on Scapa Flow…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/03/orkney-walks-scapa-bay-all-it-holds/
The shore on this side of the Pier isn’t as good for finding ’treasure’ as the first section we walked, but I did find the base of a stoneware bottle with ‘Port Dundas Glasgow’ stamped into it, which came home with us to join our other bits of crap-off-the- beach!
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Shapeshifting Jackie Morris…
https://unbound.com/books/wild-folk/updates/riversong-an-extract-and-i-still-shapeshifting
And while she’s at it…rebelling….I likes this….
“I was pleased to climb over a stile onto some land that said 'permit holders only'. (Robin has a parking permit for outside his house, and as it didn't specify what kind of permit was required to step onto the riverbank we figured this would suffice.)“
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine….
“Look Closely, or You’ll Miss It
by Natalie Rose Richardson
“Focusing on the birds here at Middleton doesn’t make me forget the painful history of the place so much as it briefly allows that history to fade into my periphery, allowing for something else to center itself in my vision, to take its place.”
“This week, birds are beginning their annual migrations southward. Canadian geese are finding their V-shaped formations; sandhill cranes are gathering into migratory groups. During this season, according to the bird migration tracker developed by Colorado State University and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, over three hundred million birds across the US take flight on their journeys to warmer winter climates each night. As avid birdwatchers know, when we place birds at the center of our awareness, familiar spaces come alive with movement and song, and a relationship of growing respect can unfold.
In this week’s essay, Natalie Rose Richardson begins to experience a quality of attention that birdwatching can cultivate. Learning from Chicago historian Sherry Williams, who has piloted programs exploring the relationship between bird migration and the Great Migration, and J. Drew Lanham, an ornithologist and poet whose work engages confluences of race, place, and nature, Natalie follows a migration path from Chicago to South Carolina that brings the practice of birdwatching together with her own layered history. In landscapes both new and familiar, she shows us what’s possible when we bear witness with eyes wide open.”
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Here’s one I made earlier….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/06/08/images-of-yesnaby/
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