Alec Finlay

The 16th century doocot or dovecot at Phantasie, East Lothian in Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Fàn taise, translates as "damp gentle slope").

Day of Access project aims to make Scotland's right to roam truly universal The right to roam has opened up our wild spaces but there are still groups who need assistance to benefit from it, writes Roger Cox

A feature in The Scotsman magazine on day of access, by Roger Cox, with myself, Tamara, and Hayden. Asking what happens when vulnerable bodies access vulnerable ecologies. Photo by Sam MacDiarmid. www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/ou...

mending

this thought is a stain–
that she is too ill to cry

that thought is a stone–
when he is too scared to speak out

this thought is a gain–
that these words are their making

4.III.26

Two books from Museums etc. Photography is the main subject of the books from Museums etc., a new imprint that publishes from Edinburgh.

The ever-wonderful Robin Kinross of Hyphen Editions, on a new book, the erasure of Palestine, published by the Edinburgh publisher Museums etc who also have interesting looking books by Jo Spence. robinkinross.substack.com/p/two-books-...

Just Nick Robinson casually asking a guest on BBC Today if protests against the war 'should be allowed to go ahead' or 'ought to be banned in this country'.

Dramatic fall in murders in Scotland shows how to tackle drug-deaths The techniques used to reduce the prevalence of violence could also be deployed against Scotland’s drug-deaths crisis

Over the past 20 years Scotland’s murder rate has fallen by 2/3. The police Violence Reduction Unit‬⁩ came to recognise the roots of much such crime as a public health issue, “the culmination of a long journey, starting with violence in the home & childhood trauma.”

app.scotsman.com/story/561616...

This is an astonishing and extremely poor decision that ought to be reversed.

March

white rabbit, pinch
and a punch for the first
of the month–a slap

and a kick for being
so quick–or, in our
world, just a dozy hug

windflower

A picture of British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud, a British Asian woman, standing next to rows of bunk beds in an extremely austere dormitory with whitewashed walls and black curtains. She is wearing an ankle length black coat and looking menacingly at one of the bunk beds.

The ~optics~ of this image is so blindingly obvious it is impossible Mahmoud, Labour and the British government not to know how reminiscent of images of genocide this is.

And they've chosen to make it the image they promote in the aftermath of a severe by-election defeat.

sakura, for and after RAJ

there is a bench, there is a path,
there are legs, just, and there

is the poet, and they will see
the cherry blossom again

28.II.26

The Guardian typo which gives the forthcoming Holyrood elections as the 'holiday elections' has a wonderful truth.

@zackpolanski.bsky.social : "Once again Reform are spreading misinformation & smears, and the press & the media seem to repeat them.. its really important that the media.. take responsibility so when Reform or Farage says something they don't just keep repeating it"👏👏👏

proposal for a gravestone for the Labour Party: WE SHOULD HAVE INTRODUCED PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE.

Nationally, Labour is losing twice as many voters to Greens and Lib Dems as they are to Reform. (John Curtice on BBC)

from a guide to the place names of England. GORTON: a boggy end, featuring a green flush.

an inheritance blooming in the stairwell

what a relief those
are dawn’s tender fingers

firing the glaze
of the towerblocks

pushing my night-thoughts
back in their pockets

26.II.26

'the friendless disease'

the robin tsiiip lets us know
tsiiip we’re sat right under
his tsiiip very own willow

25.II.26

Papa Westray. To enjoy the windsock, and knowing that when your flight does take place the flying time is either 2 minutes or 12 minutes. (No bar).

Who Owns Scotland 2025 - Land Matters SCOTLAND’S CONCENTRATED PATTERN OF LANDOWNERSHIP CONTINUES TO GET WORSE Today I publish Who Owns Scotland 2025, the second annual report on landownership in Scotland. The first (Who Owns Scotland 2024...

Today I publish Who Owns Scotland 2025, an annual analysis of landownership across rural Scotland. The most significant finding is the continuing trend over past 15 years of fewer and fewer owners owning more and more of rural Scotland. andywightman.scot/2026/02/who-...

the wings of the swan
are sails, are blades

in flight, and rams
for a battering fight

24.II.26

"John Prescott would be loving this"

All patches of snow in Scotland disappear in 2025, for the fourth consecutive year No patches of snow survived on the hills of Scotland from the winter of 2024/2025 to the winter of 2025/2026.

In Scotland, no patches of snow from winter 2024/2025 survived to winter 2025/2026

- This is the fourth year in a row that all snow has completely disappeared

I miss snow

#climatecrisis
HT @carbonbrief.org
rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

for David Harding

in her latest reverie
of the silver screen

she recalls the sword-
play of Eric Flynn

22.II.26

the boat is on the water
the pier is in the reeds

21.II.26