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Recent Comments
judith on when the wheels come off MYna on … Myna on A dream come true (and an easy… Myna Trustram on into the past again, naturally… jonathan trustram on Ely Diary Meta
Author Archives: jonathan trustram
when the wheels come off
That was one of the first ones. They come to rest in gullies, ditches, gorges. For a few excited moments they roll and bounce, watched maybe, then they’re still for ever. Just come across this, a draft from several years … Continue reading
anyway – I was going to say – in usual fashion I lay on the sofa and quickly constructed a little essay about the tulip, T. orphanidea in Parnonas – then it immediately seems like a chore to actually write … Continue reading
I forgot the whistling duck
.., and other things besides – (see the last post) – did I tell you about the whistling duck before? The pronoun question has to be asked of ducks too of course; I don’t want to say ‘it’, and I … Continue reading
Arcadia 2, etc.
On the meadows by the river, I’ve seen this three times: a couple approaches a small group of heifers, quietly, slowly, a little cluster of three or four curious but wary animals, and then someone reaches out towards one, it … Continue reading
the Greylag and Arcadia
The landscape in lines, left to right as you walk under the railway bridge at the edge of the town: 1, railway line on a brambled embankment ; 2, damp pasture with reeds and sedge and a shallow lake in … Continue reading
Posted in diary, Eden etc, mountains, flowers, landscapes, walks
Tagged birds, ely, utopia
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Underfoot
In the middle of wild swampland where the trees are intertwined in an inextricable thicket, there is a plain with very green vegetation which attracts the eye by reason of its fertility; no obstacle impedes the walker. Not a particle … Continue reading
Interventions, and twenty three species of dung beetles.
see also notes on bird hides and on rewilding where I wrote about the dilemma of the National Trust at Wicken Fen: what to do about large mammals suffering and dying, and how to control introduced populations of herbivores, konik ponies … Continue reading
how plants become weeds (and vice versa)
Here’s Euphorbia rigida, on neglected ground near olive trees in the Peleponnese. Actually, you can’t see it very clearly. I’ll see if I can come up with a cropped version. It’s April, and this early euphorbia has nearly finished flowering. … Continue reading
Posted in gardens, going round in circles, in Greece, mountains, flowers, landscapes
Tagged Anavriti, euphorbia, phlomis, weeds
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in Greece, 2024
I measure my decline against the mountain’s incline. This year I was still able, slowly, to walk up from Anavriti to Livadi, from 700 metres above sea level to 1400 metres and then back down by a more circuitous route … Continue reading
Posted in mountains, flowers, landscapes, my life, walks
Tagged Anavriti, greece, rewilding
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on horses, birds, ways of seeing
Vesper Flights, p. 190-1. Helen Macdonald too writes from Wicken fen, it’s almost a literary salon! see notes on bird hides and on rewilding. She’s among the reeds: I learned to listen, to tune into noises and let them guide my … Continue reading
Posted in mountains, flowers, landscapes, water
Tagged Alan Bloom, Eric Ennion, Wentworth Day, Wicken fen
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like a little black book 