We are delighted to publish Issue 6 of Paperboats Zine, Nature's Voice. Edited by @alexnye.bsky.social and Ian Grosz and featuring a host of wonderful writers and poets. Brew yourself a cuppa and settle down for an inspiring and uplifting read. paperboats.org/category/zin...

Leaf mould black-brown, an upturned Peacock butterfly damaged; gently uprighted, plumage glows. A fleeting life. Rose-leaf stretchered to a geranium bloom grave, I bow my head in gratitude. Ten minutes pass, maybe more. On my return it is gone.

What the heck. Inspired by this lovely place I've shrugged off writers block and penned a wee essay at the last minute for #WordsOfTheWild comp. Not my finest - but words have been written. Now on with the main project.

🎤 NEW PODCAST! The latest Nothing But The Poem podcast is a Norman MacCaig special. @samueltongue.bsky.social takes a deep dive into two of the most famous poems by one of Scotland's most beloved poets to see what lay beneath the bonnet. www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/podcast/noth...

Summer solstice salutations. Here’s a wee poem penned three years ago having spent the solstice eve by Loch Laide in Abriachan. Poem published in Pushing Out the Boat Issue 17.

Bricht and blue through the canopy of the old garden apple, budding plenty for the autumn ahead.

An #Otwituary for #LorettaSwit, ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan in M*A*S*H I heard you served with the 4077th, an instrument of sanity in the madness of operations gone wrong, in a show we would like to forget but cannot, a tragedy wearing comedy’s scrubs.

To celebrate the life of Lesley Storm friends are hosting an event which will commence at 3pm on Saturday 7th of June at St Vincent's Chapel, Edinburgh. PLEASE SHARE😌 Event Details: leamingtonbooks.com/lesley-storm

'His body is a jubilee of turquoise feathers, mistletoe green edges, and an autumnal orange belly...' 💙 Last year's winner, Hannah Murphy, perfectly captured that frozen moment when wildlife takes your breath away. Could your writing be next? ✏️ 🔗 Enter today: buff.ly/uphRCZW #WordsoftheWild

I didn’t expect to see my face and poem at the reception desk of Inverness Central Library this evening. A fine evening listening to poetry and song hosted by the ever joyous @kittyjomac.bsky.social

Fruit and veg corner. Verdant in the much needed shade of the old apple tree, twitching with hungry birds. Makeshift seedling protection using long-ago coppiced hazel, scraps of yarn and mouse-eaten fleece - a perhaps futile effort to deter the cats and hen. Rhubarb from our old garden bedding in.

0018hrs. 57.33N Trees backlit by a streetlight beyond the mill burn cast leaf shadow. Simmer dim.

Looking for your next job opportunity? 💼 We're looking for a strategic thinker with excellent communication skills and understanding of early years in Scotland to join our team. Find out more and apply here 👇 www.scottishbooktrust.com/about/vacanc...

Looking after nature = looking after the garden. ‘Carol used to look after the garden with such care.’ Judgement from one of my new neighbours, clearly missing the point. #nomowmay etc. Now to tackle the streetlight issue.

Waiting out in the last-light to hear the first tawny owl call of the night. 9.45pm and drawing out.

I’m delighted to be part of @paperboatswriters.bsky.social 5. Thanks to all involved in this excellent, honest project. @byleaveswelive.bsky.social @asls.org.uk paperboats.org/2025/04/07/b...

If you are a Scottish based poet who hasn't had a full collection yet, why not apply for this: stmungosmirrorball.wordpress.com/2025/04/24/a...

Offering words to inspire action for nature on World Earth Day we give you Issue 5 of Paperboats Zine: Our Power - Our Planet. Edited by Polly Pullar and Linda Cracknell and launching today: paperboats.org We open for submissions for Issue 6 in autumn.

Procrastination Central.

No time for a dook today sadly - just a wee toe dip. Recycled glass green and as clear as I’ve seen a river. A longer stop off on Saturday is called for to wash away the week of visitors.

Loch Beinn a’ Mheadhain, Glen Affric. Dook, family picnic and a daunder.

A brief but precious interlude alone. Seeking shade under the bluest of Highland skies. The clarity of a blank page to gather my thoughts.

A wee detour from Snecky to Skite to visit the Maiden. Bricht-lichted aneath the Mither Tap. #themaidenstone #pictishstones #thegarioch #bennachie #aberdeenshire

Book post is best. Home from work to find the paperback of @davidworthington.bsky.social ‘s fine book waiting for me. That’s school holiday reading sorted.

#Ospreys return to the Highlands in late March/early April to breed, nesting in tall trees like Scots pines. 🌲🪹 These raptors live on a diet of fish like trout and pike. 🐟 Did you know? 🤔 Ospreys have reversible toes to securely grasp slippery fish! Learn more 👉 bit.ly/41OIfZD

Ending the week with a brand new online workshop up on northseapoets.com 🌊 Time and the Figurative with Karen Solie 🗓️ Saturday 5th July 7-9pm 🎟️ £35 / £25 concession #NorthSeaPoets #Poetry #PoetryCommunity

On Monday our instagram account was hacked and then deleted. We received a ransom note to recover it; obviously we couldn't and wouldn't pay, and therefore lost thousands of followers. Meta support was useless. But we're BACK with a new account: @littletollerbooks. Can you follow us there and share?

We're hiring a Communications Officer (maternity cover) to join our team! Would you like to use your communications skills to support the UK’s largest ecological restoration project? Apply now! bit.ly/cc-jobs-and-... @rspbscotland.bsky.social, @cairngormsnews.bsky.social, @naturescot.bsky.social

I am a product of Scotland’s oil industry - bought and sold for the price of nature. Atlantic salmon are at risk of extinction. Following the salmon run from the North Sea to the Cairngorms, I ask - can we save not just this keystone species, but ourselves in the process? #scotwriterpitch2025

“The life & career of the gifted Glaswegian writer Catherine Carswell was marked by such alarming & recurrent notoriety that her present obscurity is baffling” —@emmagarman.bsky.social on the life & work of Catherine Carswell (1879–1946), b. #OTD, 27 March 1/5 www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/06...

#scotwriterpitch2025 Yell, Shetland, 1928. Fourteen-year-old Merran meets a mysterious stranger on the beach who causes her to question whether there was more to her brother's drowning five years prior. But the stranger, Solveg, isn't all she seems, and her presence brings danger to the community.

Her poetry my guide, I walk in the footsteps of Helen B Cruickshank (1886-1975), journeying in Scotland’s glens, hills and islands to explore a narrative of cultural and environmental change, reflect on what is to be a woman walking and find poetics of hope in a time of crises. #scotwriterpitch2025

Lesley Harrison on WS Graham, Rabelais and the Northeast passage, on the northseapoets substack. I tend to think of Malcom Mooney’s Land as a whiteout counterpart to the black shadow of Ted Hughes’ Crow (also 1970) tho MML now seems the more widely influential … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

A new deep-sea study involving SAMS scientists and led by @noc.ac.uk and @nhm-london.bsky.social has revealed the long-term impacts and the first signs of biological recovery in seabed mining tracks, 44-years after deep-sea trails in the Pacific #Ocean.🌊🧪 Read more 👉 www.sams.ac.uk/news/sams-ne...

I wad ha’e gi’en him my lips tae kiss, Had I been his, had I been his… —“Mary’s Song”, by Marion Angus (1865–1946) – born #OTD, 27 March THE TINKER’S ROAD & Other Verses (1924) “She has an authentic voice straight out of the ballad tradition, an eerie shimmer to her best poems” —Kathleen Jamie

Lines and light.

Happy Spring Equinox! 🌼 Below, from the School Atlas of Astronomy, published 1856: "Now, on March 20th... Spring is said to commence. The Sun is in the equator, day is equal in length to night, and hence the position is called the spring or vernal equinox." #SpringEquinox #Spring #Astronomy #Art

Interested in a career in ecological restoration after school? We have four types of work placements available for local young people in S4–S6! Get hands on experience in deer management 🦌 science 🔬 youth engagement 🙌 or our Tree Nursery 🌱 bit.ly/CC-Study-Opp... @cairngormsnews.bsky.social

Book your spot on our first course: #Poetry Fundamentals – A Seven-Week Course Taught by the #NorthSeaPoets 🌊 This course is for experienced and emerging writers. Get all the details here: northseapoets.com/courses #PoetryCommunity

Ahoy! Episode Six of the Paperboats Podcast featuring author and poet Leonie Charlton. Leonie discusses the spiritual connections we have lost with nature, writing about the more-than-human world and conflicts of interests inherent in deer management and rewilding. paperboats.org/podcasts/

Street lights are on but I’m refusing to accept the darkness of Sunday evening and all the connotations it brings.

Also: North Sea Poets' first Substack - what is poetry *for?

Time for a THREAD of amazing Scottish island women to brighten #ThursdayMorning. 1st, Bessie Williamson, the only woman to own & manage a whisky distillery in the 20th century: Laphroaig on Islay. She was known for giving jobs when people were down on their luck. Such a queen. /1

Helen Burness Cruickshank - poet, literary activist, suffragette - died on this day in 1975. I am getting back on track with my book, following in her footsteps through Scotland, her poetry my guide. Thanks for all you gave us Helen. Yours aye. #helenbcruickshank #scottishliterature #amwriting

An excellent resource from the guys at Kidlit Scotland! Wherever you're heading in Scotland, there is a childrens book set there. #VisitScotland kidlitscotland.wordpress.com/2024/07/01/1...

Feeling off. Corrimony restored my balance.

📢👀 Sightings Call: Stoneywood, Aberdeen! Following a rare grey squirrel sighting in Stoneywood, Aberdeen we are asking people in the area to keep a close eye out and record sightings at: scottishsquirrels.org.uk/squirrel-sightings/

I wonder how many generations of corvids have nested in this old sycamore, how many new lives born in its branches as the dead are buried among its roots.

The Land of Lewis Grassic Gibbon: Places of the Sunset Currently on the BBC iPlayer: a 1971 film about Lewis Grassic Gibbon & the landscape & people of Kincardineshire where he grew up www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...