The decision this morning wasn’t whether to brave the winter weather. It was what guns to take? Looking out of the windows at home I could see the light boughs of young yew and cedar bending under a Northerly blow. In the habit lately of taking both air rifle and rimfire, I glanced at the … Continue reading The Buzzard and The Betrayal
Sometimes I want nothing more than to sit back from the current round of pro & anti-hunting banter and just get on with my (hunting) life. Today the good folk at The Countryman's Weekly, for whom I write, accidently pointed me in the direction of a seriously worrying piece of biased journalism in The … Continue reading Anti-Hunting? Be Careful What You Wish For!
I shouldn't really have been surprised to see them this morning; yet I was. It was my wife, Cheryl, who first saw them and pointed skyward with a query. "They look like Kestrels, but they're not?" I watched the three birds for a while as they coursed the azure sky on the first morning of … Continue reading The Hobby And The Peewit: Dedicated To Derrick Bailey
If you are in the public eye (and in a very minor way, I am, as a country-sports writer) you need to watch what you say. If you’re happy to say it, then you need the balls to defend it too. I joined a petition tonight aimed at the BBC asking them to moderate the … Continue reading Witch-Hunts & Wildlife Wars
It was a delight today to jump the old lurcher into the tailgate of an SUV, pack a gun in the motor and head out to the shade of a summer wood for some squirreling. The old dog had been deprived of his weekend sorties due to his owner (yours truly) having a very senior … Continue reading The Buzz
My last post on here turned out to be a prophecy fulfilled, unfortunately. No-one is to blame for this. Many of us in the pro-hunting camp rely on a number of hardcore political lobbyists aligned to our various Associations and Alliances to do the campaigning for a fair deal for hunters, shooters, anglers et … Continue reading Alive & Kicking: Bungles and Bees
The scent of jasmine carried by the breeze on a hot June night overwhelms the fading aroma of garlic bread and barbecued meat. The midges dance in anger outside an invisible curtain of citronella smoke released from a circle of burning tea-lights. Pipistrelle bats prey on insects hovering around the solar lamps in the hanging … Continue reading Summer Breeze
So peaceful. Close to 10pm here on the garden deck and still very warm. The sun has set ... a subtle display of reds and pinks ... but the twilight has now settled into a cornflower blue vista dotted with light cloud. The pipistrelle bats are swooping across the tops of the cherry trees and … Continue reading A Summer Sundown
The dark and bulbous cloud bank rolled toward the wood like a series of breaking waves. The gunmetal texture in high contrast to the fields of ripe, yellow rape. Above the brimstone crop, swallows and swifts flew sorties amongst the storm flies and aphids trapped in the pressure front of the moist tsunami. The deep, … Continue reading A Summer Storm Over A Norfolk Wood
The clatter and crash of wheels and cogs turning ceased as soon as I saw the open view across the morning stubbles. There was nothing wrong with the X-Trail. The noise was in my head, the turmoil of yet another poor nights sleep. Before I'd left, the digital weather station in the kitchen told me … Continue reading Rabbits and Spiders
