Arthur’s first month Poet-in-residence Damaris West takes on a new four-footed companion After my Italian rescue dog Galileo (mostly cocker spaniel) died of dilated cardiomyopathy, I vowed I would never have another dog. For one thing I’d be making myself vulnerable to a repeat of the tragedy. For another, a physical disability interferes with my ability to

Why didn’t you fly, my boyfriend replied (with a crying face emoji). It was a Thursday evening in late February, and I’d messaged to say I was already feeling sleepy despite having another train journey – of three hours – to embark on once I arrived by Eurostar in Paris. He asked me this before,

Writer-in-residence Damaris West delights in skeins of geese in poetry and prose.

Every natural historian must have noticed that over this past summer in the UK there have been much reduced numbers of our normally commonest butterflies: peacocks, red admirals, small tortoiseshells, painted ladies. We’re told this was due to the wet, cold, windy spring, although the general decline in most species is a long-term trend, related

Poet-in-residence Shani Cadwallender provides an introductory text to the new year.

Walking around the Internet with Amelia Hodsdon our writer-in-residence

You might think there’s only one right way to walk around an art gallery. Hell, no. There are as many ways to walk around an art gallery as there are artists and people going to see those artists’ works in art galleries. Well, nearly.

It’s a bit of a mash-up, but somehow it seems to work.  You can get down and dirty with mud, bushes and wetlands one minute. And then the next, admire opulent Georgian houses, shiny newbuilds and quirky eateries on this Fulham to Chiswick section of the Thames Path. The Thames Path was launched in 1996

73,866 lyrics. 103 artists. 50 albums. There’s no shortage of songs with “walk away” imbedded in the melody, concealed in the cadence. So many ways crooners beat rhythms to withdraw, abandon, forsake, maroon, shuck off, disown. Go on the run. Applaud a lucky break. Is walking away as simple as strolling round the corner, or

Why you should walk barefoot on a Caribbean beach: an acrostic wonder of wanders Walk barefoot on Pinneys Beach, walk barefoot on the longest beach on the island of Nevis, a four-mile blanket edge stitched with silken sand, loose strands of froth running between your toes. Avoid the track most taken, avoid the considerable conference

People in the country think I’m a serial killer, because I walk without a dog. It’s obvious I have bad intentions – and most probably, murder on my mind – in the absence of a furry companion trotting to heel. “Where’s your dog?” locals ask suspiciously.  Sometimes I say the dog’s been left behind, like

Like a cosy pair of slippers, a sauce-smudged recipe, or a beloved childhood book – Anne of Green Gables, in my case – a walk you’re at ease with can offer solace.  Anne Shirley, the free-spirited orphan in Anne of Green Gables transformed commonplace Barry’s Pond into the more appealing Lake of Shining Waters. And

In 2022 I have been commissioned to research a memorial to Covid for Aberdeenshire. My proposal is to develop a long-distance path from Mountain to Sea – taking Aberdeenshire’s motto literally. Based on Patrick Geddes’s Valley Section, I have been walking from Aberdeenshire’s highest point Ben MacDui in the Cairngorm mountains to the North Sea

I am walking from Mountain to Sea. Ben MacDui. First stop. Tourists are on the up.

In the city. Can you walk in the city?

Not much walking this month. Just in the house.

Where was the house, here?, no here?

I walk, like many days, around you, out of the garden.