Water wild
A splashing description of sheer untrammelled liquid joy in the second otter Gavin Maxwell claimed from the wild. This turned...
My kinda cats – II
Generally speaking, I'm not a big cat fan, preferring dogs all round. However, although I can be dismissive of the...
Shoat or shote
A North American word for a young pig, especially one which is newly weaned.
Source: OED and Barry Lopez, Arctic...
Crisp-winged flies
A symbiosis of hovering birds and fly-pestered bullocks, the darting martins hoovering up bothersome crisp-winged flies.
'Martins twittered along the...
As smooth as …
Of course, this simile is obvious when you see it, but have you ever seen it before? Please try incorporating...
Collective contentment
Among the most cherished beings in Mervyn Peake's sprawling, imaginative Gormenghast, are the teeming masses of white cats belonging to...
Dark-horned skulls
This study of the Arctic encompasses an ice core deep drill through time – the coldness of the region preserving...
Hunger-making smell
An undertow of this animal life-loving adventure is hunger. We must be one of the few species having a significant...
One wrong move
Babur is one of my favourite dogs, full of character and occasionally stubborn and ornery. Here his new master, Rory...
Shovel-shaped antlers
Recently saw a David Attenborough programme showing such flat-planed antlers. Here they are spotted in the forest regions of Transylvania.
...
Torment-filled pupil
This doesn't refer to a struggling school child but rather the traumatic last moments of a horse in a war...
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