76
@RobGMacfarlane
Writing today about this ivory figurine.
It's c. 30,000 years old; found in the Hohle Fels cave in the Swabian Jura.
A tiny Ice Age bird, wings swept back tight to its body.
Such grace of being & making.
A Diver? Goose? Cormorant?
It knows where it's going.
[Photo @uni_tue]
77
@RobGMacfarlane
In case of interest, "The Living Mountain"––a 1/2-hour radio love-letter to the Cairngorms & the writing of Nan Shepherd that I made in 2013––is back up on @BBCSounds.
Some extraordinary things happened up in the hills while we were recording this.
Here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03…
78
@RobGMacfarlane
Meanwhile:
"Our report clearly indicates that places where people live & work may cease to exist, that ecosystems & species we've all grown up with & that are central to our cultures & inform our languages may disappear."
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
79
@RobGMacfarlane
The Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal for Ukraine; individual donations will now be matched by the UK Government through UKAid, up to an initial £20,000,000.
So e.g. £100 given becomes (with Gift Aid) £225 received by @decappeal.
Spread the word.
👇👇👇👇 twitter.com/decappeal/stat…
80
@RobGMacfarlane
The amazing indy publishers @LittleToller & @Ofmooseandmen have just launched this initiative to help the displaced children of Ukraine.
They're sending 10,000 backpacks filled w/ books, torches, gloves, hats, games...
Pls spread the word, donate, support.
justgiving.com/crowdfunding/p… twitter.com/LittleToller/s…
81
@RobGMacfarlane
Thanks to my friend the legend @StanleyDonwood for letting me use a detail from his #WeStandWithUkraine-adapted linocut The Eraser as a new banner.
Follow him here/on Instagram: he’s about to sell a run of this print to raise funds to help refugees from the war. Gonna fly. 🇺🇦
82
@RobGMacfarlane
Up on the otherworld of Buachaille Etive Mor summit this afternoon.
Late-day light & roaming spindrift.
Big winds; drop & stop when the gusts came.
Up Curved Ridge, down through the main corrie.
Ravens & juniper with us up there, not much else.
83
@RobGMacfarlane
Vanishing point on an old railway line out in the Fens.
Seven or eight skylarks, singing their hearts out at all dark matter, lifting the spirit.
Heard skylarks yet this year? Where & when?
84
@RobGMacfarlane
I wrote a film called River.
It's directed by @jenpeedom.
Narrated by Willem Dafoe.
Music by Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood/@JnnyG & the astonishing @didgefusion.
It's about the death & life of rivers––& how our future flows with theirs.
It's out this Friday: river.film
85
@RobGMacfarlane
The great @billmckibben, clarifying as ever, with this epic @NewYorker essay re-framing the climate crisis with a rule to live by: in a world on fire, stop burning things.
newyorker.com/news/essay/in-…
86
@RobGMacfarlane
For #WorldPoetryDay, the great Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska’s “The End and the Beginning”, translated by Joanna Trzeciak.
“After every war
Someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
Straighten themselves up, after all…”
poetryfoundation.org/poems/52955/th…
87
@RobGMacfarlane
First blossom today on this apple tree, grown from a pip gathered by my friend Roger Deakin from Kazakhstan's ur-apple forests. He died 3 yrs later.
I always mark the day; think of Rog.
A memory-tree. You've probably got one yourself.
Story of the tree: emergencemagazine.org/essay/east-to-…
88
@RobGMacfarlane
Young people, parents, teachers:
I'm a trustee of @Action4Conserv, a charity that works to inspire & connect 12-16 yr olds with nature.
We run free & fun week-long Summer Camps.
Applying's easy & applications are open here: actionforconservation.org/camp
🌱 Please spread the word! 🌱
89
@RobGMacfarlane
“Let the world be as horrified and as generous as we have been for Ukraine, to stop Afghan children dying right now.”
@UNOCHA twitter.com/EleanorMonbiot…
90
@RobGMacfarlane
My Dad won the "Botanical" category of this year's Scottish Nature Photography Awards with this brilliant, defamiliarising image of a lichen-hung rowan tree near Glen Affric.
Like a medieval tapestry.
Coverage: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
Fascinatingly, he's red-green colourblind.
91
@RobGMacfarlane
“It is not the swimmer who poisons our rivers, nor the rambler who burns the moorland; when they took away our right to access the land, they took away our ability to protect it.”
The Trespasser’s Companion, out today.
More on the English access campaign:
righttoroam.org.uk twitter.com/nickhayesillus…
92
@RobGMacfarlane
Paths are the habits of a landscape.
93
@RobGMacfarlane
First Swifffttttt of the year! At last!
High above the garden, pulling an audacious handbrake turn into the billowing wind. Joy...
Thinking again of Edward Thomas's lines in 'Haymaking':
"The swift with wings & tail as sharp & narrow
As if the bow had flown off with the arrow."
94
@RobGMacfarlane
Big plans to “re-wild” London: redshank & lapwing back along Thames, beavers in the marshes, nature corridors, micro-parks…
A reminder of how biodiverse cities are & can be, esp. with more blue & green space.
Good for humans, good for other-than-humans. theguardian.com/environment/20…
95
@RobGMacfarlane
“There is a power that has been since all eternity, and that force and potentiality is ‘viriditas’, the greening.”
(Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179)
Send green…
96
@RobGMacfarlane
Used this beautiful river as a path for a few hours today.
Along the way saw a kingfisher, a water-vole, a huge striped pike fanning over a gravel-bed, and…an otter.
The full-house of a chalk-stream in wonderful health.
97
@RobGMacfarlane
A quiet avian flu catastrophe is unfolding among wild birds.
Details & advice here:
“Anyone who finds a dead or dying wild bird, which they suspect might have the disease, should not touch it. Immediately report to Defra’s helpline – 03459 335577.” theguardian.com/environment/20…
98
@RobGMacfarlane
Last year the "controlled burning" of peatland deeper than 40cm was banned in England.
@GreenpeaceUK & @Natures_Voice show illegal burning ongoing on shooting estates.
Blanket ban on burning all moorland peat needs to be introduced.
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
99
@RobGMacfarlane
With Ai Weiwei, Alan Bennett & Tamsin Greig, I’m part of Drawn To War, dir. @MargyKinmonth, a film abt Eric Ravilious (1903-42), whose art transformed perceptions of English landscape.
He died too young, serving as a war artist in Iceland.
Out this month: details @raviliousfilm
100
@RobGMacfarlane
The state of England's rivers is a disgrace.
@WildJustice_org is taking the regulator @Ofwat to court for its perceived failure to monitor & act on sewage discharges.
There's a fundraiser underway to support this. 👇
Pls spread the word, follow @WildJustice_org
Change must come. twitter.com/WildJustice_or…
@RobGMacfarlane
Books: Is A River Alive? (WIP) Underland, The Lost Words, The Old Ways, etc. | Films: River, Mountain, Upstream | Nature, climate, people | Prof @Cambridge_uni