Here you will find the latest Rural Rambling Article by ‘Rambling Bloke’, first published in the Ross-shire Journal on June 5th 2009.
‘Rural Rambling’ (June 2009)
A man on his hands and knees sifted through fallen pine needles in the garden, a sweep net protruding from his back pocket and a magnifying glass in hand, quite clearly a man searching for bugs (‘bug man’) although I didn’t know this at the time, not to begin with anyway, as I’d never met the man before in my life. So what was he doing in our garden? Well, it was like this, you see, his wife and mine, work colleagues, friends, dropped by for a chat, cup of tea, carrot cake, that sort of thing, brought husband along, and children too, mustn’t forget them, and very pleasant folk they were too. Now our garden isn’t much of a garden really, no, more accurate to describe it as a large woody place with damp areas, fine for the midges but not fine for anything much else apart from heathers, conifers and a variety of uninteresting looking sedges (unless sedges is your thing). Boggy land, that’s what we have, and lots of it, though undoubtedly a wonderful habitat for bugs of the microscopic kind and clearly fascinating if you happen to be an entomologist dropping by for a cup of tea. I watched with mounting curiosity as Mr ‘Entomologist’ (he looked a bit like the actor, Charles Dance, to be honest) glided smoothly through the heather, his sweep net swishing energetically back and forth, side to side, stopping regularly to inspect the contents. He carried bug detecting equipment with him at all times, you see, ready to leap into action whenever necessary. No deranged individual with strange habits, this guy, no, far from it, but a highly respected scientist equipped with a hand-held satellite navigation system to pinpoint and record the exact position of any rare or exotic bugs he might come across. Fascinating. During an interval in tea and cake consumption we gathered by the pond to view pond skaters, toads, dragon flies and similar beasties (sweep net now replaced by ‘pond net’), all of which I could see at any time of course, only now they were revealed through the eyes of an enthusiastic entomologist who’s obvious excitement was hard to contain as he flitted from spot to spot uttering strange whooping noises. Fantastic! There were dragon flies in abundance by the pond, creatures hitherto viewed suspiciously by me as ‘wasp-like flying carrots’ to be avoided at all costs (to run away from in fact) although on this occasion I stood still and, for a fleeting moment or two, before my eyes they metamorphosed from ‘flying carrots’ into ‘insects of beauty’, though I must admit not quite beautiful enough to get too close to and prevent me from losing my dignity by running away if they invaded my personal space. Just before ‘Bug Man’ departed he noted the exact location of a rare species of insect (using satellite technology of the hand-held variety) and announced in no uncertain terms that we were lucky to possess such “good quality bog”. And with this startling revelation ringing in our ears they were gone, returning home via a bug-infested wood stump – spotted earlier in Scotsburn – that clearly merited further investigations. So next time you’re out and about the ‘bog lands’ of Ross-shire and see a deranged-looking individual who looks a bit like Charles Dance prancing through heather and sedge, take note for he may not be deranged at all but simply an enthusiastic entomologist out for a jaunt with his family, a sweep net in one hand and the latest techno-wizardry in the other. As for us, we see our garden in a different light now. It may not be the neatest garden in the world, but – my word, good heavens – we’ve certainly got “good quality bog” and not many people can say that, now can they?
(First published in the Ross-shire Journal 5/6/09)
