an unofficial anti-guide to Irresponsible Parenting (part 1) If there’s one thing more tedious than a childfree friend extolling the virtues of their carbon neutral fun-and-money-filled lifestyle, it’s a self-satisfied parent extolling the worthiness of their child fulfilled life. There seems to be a whole lot of navel gazing surrounding the weird, wonderful world of sprogs, with both ‘sides’ convinced of how much better their life is with/without. Therefore, as a new-ish dad, and someone who considered himself least likely to ever spawn an ankle biter of his own, rest assured I’m going to avoid a ‘how to’ guide on…

Spending time outdoors in natural places is universally recognised as being good for both our physical health and our mental well-being. Getting children outdoors and exploring the natural world is in their best interest, but it is also in society’s best interest for a healthy, well-informed, environmentally-aware population. The onus is on parents and educators to try to ‘interpret’ the natural world for our kids, so that they can understand their place within it and recognise how vital its protection is. That can be as cheap and easy as making daisy chains, collecting conkers or blowing on dandelion clocks. Encourage…

THE hills of Scotland have a long tradition of the supernatural, which is hardly surprising since the indigenous highlander, even to-day, tends to superstition, and the history of Gaeldom is splattered with tales of the second sight, the little people, and tales from beyond the grave. My one and only encounter with anything remotely resembling spectral things occurred in Glen Banchor near my home in Newtonmore. I had taken my dogs for a walk on a local hill on a day of mist and rain, and as we returned along a well-trodden hill path we could see the glen road…

David Lintern reflects on time spent in Assynt One of the most intriguing things about a few days solo backpacking… or in this case packrafting… is the joining up of thoughts seemingly unconnected. The ebb and flow, a continuity of activity that connects the otherwise disparate. Thoughts rise and others fall, and because I’m constantly moving these thoughts are allowed the space to come and go. There is also the wakefulness that comes from immersion in the back country over hours that become days – a paying of attention to raindrops and their patterns on the loch, the waves of…

The natural world, like the human world, is awash with celebrity. A lists, B lists and everything underneath. It’s entirely imposed upon it by us, of course, and for better or worse it tends to be how conservation works, with some animals and habitats being ‘causes célèbres’ and others being……well…..the opposite. On the one hand we have the animals that tabloid newspapers might describe as ‘sexy’. In Scotland that might be eagles, otters, red deer. The animals that seem to have their own publicity machine to grab headlines, get their images shared on Twitter and generate public interest with relative…

I think it’s safe to say I’m more interested in nature now than I was 15 years ago. That’s when the outdoors went from being my hobby to being my passion. But even before then I had a passing interest in nature, and tended to notice the obvious wildlife on my walks. That interest has since grown exponentially, such that I now also notice the smaller and better camouflaged creatures around me. And yet, in all my years of hillwalking, biking, camping, of being out & about in Scotland’s wild places, there’s one small and camouflaged creature in particular that…