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Advent: my journey through the moorland year. In the graveyard beside Blairdrummond Moss lie old and young, Enlightenment lords and impoverished ‘moss lairds’.

Advent: my journey through the moorland year. Invisible on the surface of #IntoThePeatlands the footprints of Andrew and Deborah @BirlinnBooks editing of my boggy text. Thank you both!

Advent: my journey through the moorland year The peatlands are half land/half water. The same view #NorthUist from above (evening, winter) and from below (morning, summer).

Advent: my journey through the moorland year. “Ditch of Mary; Heron legs under you, Bridge of warranty before you… “When a cow hesitates to cross [boggy moorland], the person driving her throws a stalk or a twig into the ditch before the unwilling animal and sings the Feith Mhoire, Vein of Mary, to encourage her to cross, and to assure her that the bridge is before her.” p.162 and p.613 ‘Carmina Gadelica’, Alexander Carmichael, Edinburgh 1899

Advent: my journey through the moorland year. The stories going round the peat fire merge and transform as in Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’

Advent: my journey through the moorland year. One of the most popular stories at my readings from #IntoThePeatlands @BirlinnBooks has been the one about drinking the 100-year-old bottle of peaty #whisky

Advent: a journey through my moorland year. “This transformation of the peat is one of its remarkable characteristics. In the boggy pools tadpoles turn into frogs; on the heather moors caterpillars into butterflies; at the sheilings adolescents into adults.” from #IntoThePeatlands @BirlinnBooks

Advent: a journey through my moorland year. #IntoThePeatlands begins with a story about a footprint, you can find their impressions running (and walking) throughout the seasons and my narrative. @BirlinnBooks

Advent: a journey through my moorland year. Winter ice transforms the quagmire bog into firm ground, one of the many layers of metamorphoses #IntoThePeatlands @BirlinnBooks

Advent: a journey through my moorland year. The first copy of ‘Into The Peatlands’ arrives by post