Michael Russell

small infographics showing outputs of funded project activity

Scottish Government's Nature Restoration Fund 1st evaluation report published today. Its investment has supported habitat and species restoration across Scotland. It's only the start but it powerfully shows how nature can recover given investment.
www.gov.scot/publications...
🌳🌱🐝🦋🐟🐸🦢🐾🌍

Call for community ownership of forests to combat corporate influence Forestry experts are calling for more community ownership of Scotland’s woodlands to combat forestry corporations.

www.thenational.scot/news/2535679...

Very pleased that @scottishlandcom.bsky.social has started to publish responses to our #ScotlandFutures initiative. Still time to have your say and help move Scottish Land Reform forward.

www.landcommission.gov.scot/news-events/...

“Looking up, I saw a low green heaven mottled with vanishing bells of white; looking around, except for the weedy spokes and shafts of the ladder, nothing but a green gloaming, somewhat opaque but very restful and delicious”

—A teenage RLS goes underwater in Wick
edrls.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/e...

Sorry to hear that Jamie McGrigor has died. My opponent in 2012 he was an original with a keen interest in rural affairs especially agriculture & freshwater fisheries. Good company too - an approach to politics which saw disagreement as a contention of ideas not a vicious battle of personalities.

“Tha tìm, am fiadh, an coille Hallaig”

“In ‘Hallaig’, MacLean, as a Gael, stands firmly at the centre of his world, and, consciously, close to the end of his world. As a poet, he shows us that the particular horizon and times that happen to encircle him, encircle us all.”
—Seamus Heaney

Sorry to hear that Neil Fraser has died. A dynamic but endlessly charming force in Scottish broadcasting his advocacy for the Gaelic language & culture meant knowing how to get effective support from those who could deliver. A great friend to @celticmediafest.bsky.social in its early days.

Across the Loch | feorlean "Across the Loch" is the title of a local podcast that I record every six weeks  or so ago along with fellow ColGlen resident...

www.blipfoto.com/entry/339070...

The @scotparl.bsky.social remembers the #Srebrenica Massacre every year. Having visited in September 2015 I was privileged to move the motion the following year

www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-...

Remembering Srebrenica | feorlean This is Nura Begovic  , one of the Mothers of Srebrenica who have been the driving force behind remembrance  of the genocide which took...

On the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, I was reminded of this from my Blipfoto journal - an afternoon of tears in the warm Balkan sunshine :

www.blipfoto.com/entry/209096...

George Mackay Brown Peat Cutting And we left our beds in the dark And we drove a cart to the hill And we buried the jar of ale in the bog And our small blades glittered in the dayspring And we tore dark squares, thick pages From the Book of Fire And we spread them wet on the heather And horseflies, poisonous hooks, Stuck in our arms And we laid off our coats And our blades sank deep into water And the lord of the bog, the kestrel Paced round the sun And at noon we leaned on our tuskars – The cold unburied jar Touched, like a girl, a circle of burning mouths And the boy found a wild bees’ comb And his mouth was a sudden brightness And the kestrel fell And a lark flashed a needle across the west And we spread a thousand peats Between one summer star And the black chaos of fire at the earth’s centre.

And we left our beds in the dark
And we drove a cart to the hill
And we buried the jar of ale in the bog
And our small blades glittered in the dayspring
And we tore dark squares, thick pages
From the Book of Fire…

—George Mackay Brown, “Peat Cutting”
published in Selected Poems: 1954–1992
#poetry

YouTube video by The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club Dr. Ewan Morris - Sir Walter Scott and place names in Australia and New Zealand

There are places all over the world named after Walter Scott’s characters & locations … it would be interesting to see a global map of them. Dr Ewan Morris gave a talk on Scott & Australian & New Zealand place-names in 2017:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r62E...

The village is mostly a line of houses built for the pit ( called Tillietudlem No 1) opened there in the early 20th century and closed in the 1930s. “Tillietudlem “ village nene signs at either end were erected by the Council in 1987.

Tillietudlem is a real place - in fact I used to live there. It even had a railway station at one time

Community Right to Buy Consultation on community ownership powers.

A consultation on making the Community Right to Buy more effective has just been launched. It is important that it results in effective change and enables more community ownership so plese respond. www.gov.scot/news/communi...

Dunoon Community Council Working together to make Dunoon & Kirn a better place for everyone

Useful to get local feedback on the Argyll Rally - this is the curtent survey……. dunooncommunitycouncil.co.uk/argyll-rally...

New analysis from the Scottish Land Commission and SRUC reveals the rural land market is showing signs of cooling.

The 2025 Land Market Insights Report, launched today, uncovers how economic uncertainty is reshaping land sales and investment across Scotland.

Read the report 👉 buff.ly/1z1xjoy

An old poem, perfectly relevant today. 🇮🇷 💔

One of the great poems about a father #fathersday

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

England is not a modern country. The graphic below by
@guyshrubsole.bsky.social in today's Observer underlines this fact.

Iain MacRath Dheigheadh sinn a dh’iasgach Dheigheadh sinn a dh’iasgach, mi fhèin is m’ athair, is lìonadh sinn an eathar le peilichean de rionnach, liutha, is dheigheadh sinn timcheall a’ bhaile gu gach nàbaidh gus am biodh na peilichean falamh. Chunnaic mi m’ athair an raoir, ged a chaochail e o chionn fichead bliadhna. Chunnaic mi air na naidheachdan e seacaid-teasairginn timcheall air is an eathar làn, làn de dhaoine.

Iain MacRae We’d go fishing We’d go fishing, me and my father, and we’d fill the dinghy with pails of mackerel, lythe, and we’d go round the village to each neighbour till each pail was empty. I saw my father last night, though he died some twenty years ago. I saw him on the news a safety jacket around him and the dinghy full, full of people.

Dheigheadh sinn a dh’iasgach,
mi fhèin is m’ athair,
is lìonadh sinn an eathar le
peilichean de rionnach, liutha,
is dheigheadh sinn timcheall a’ bhaile
gu gach nàbaidh gus am biodh na peilichean falamh…

—Iain MacRath, “Dheigheadh sinn a dh’iasgach”
Don’t. Even. Ask. Too. Hot.: NWS 42
#FathersDay

The Gilbert Scott Building and Tower early evening illuminated as seen from the East Quadrangle

Eid Mubarak to all our students, colleagues, alumni and friends celebrating Eid al-Adha in Glasgow and around the world. 🌙✨

#OneTeamUofG

Anger as Dorset estate withdraws public entry to ‘stunning’ local landmark Visitors lament ‘tremendous shame’ as notice withdrawing public access appears after £30m sale of Bridehead Estate

The endless attrition of belonging, connection, relation.

With help from @righttoroam.bsky.social it will not go unchallenged.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

What does it take to turn underused public land into a thriving community asset?

Campy Growers in Dundee shows how inclusive governance and a long-term lease can unlock real community value.

📘 Read the case study in our Governance Guide: buff.ly/EK3FZnq
📷 image credit: Miranda Geelhoed

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87 Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’

Rest in peace Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Webinar: Managing Significant Change – Risks, Responsibilities & Opportunities
Change in land use or ownership brings both risks and opportunities. Learn how to manage it well with insights from land experts.

🗓️ Wed 11 June | 🕛 12–1pm
🎟️ Register: buff.ly/00KMdPf

#GlenDevon Woodlands is the collective name we give to 3 neighbouring native woods: Glen Sherup, Geordie's Wood & Glen Quey. A mosaic of habitats stretching over 1230 hectares from Clackmannanshire to Perth & Kinross. Planted in the early '00s, wildlife is now returning. Explore 🗺️ buff.ly/YGt4jEJ

🚜 Farmers, crofters, landowners - we need your voice

Tenant Farming Manager Peter MacDougall explains why it’s vital the people who work the land, or support those who do, are properly represented in the ScotLand Futures - a conversation on the future of land reform in Scotland.

💬 buff.ly/A19aA0o

A still from THE MISSION (1986). Robert De Niro, with a black beard and swept-back dark hair, stands in a haze of smoke in a jungle scene. He is dressed in a black shirt, and is holding a rapier out in front of him in his right hand. His left is on his hip, in a fencer's fighting stance. He looks unsmilingly along the length of his sword to whatever faces him.

What 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotsman was caught up in a civil war before he was 20? Wrote a book that inspired an Oscar-winning film? Met a runaway teenager in Paris & married her against the wishes of his family? Lost his ranch to raiding Apaches?

Buckle up – it’s going to be a long, wild #Scottish #literature 🧵…
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