Lost in a dear green place

A couple of hours freedom from Anxiety Central (my head) to head down to the zoology building tonight with Sam. This time it was for the SWT and to listen to the reserve manager for the whole North East of Scotland, from Pitlochry to Angus to Gight and Longhaven, taking in ospreys, beavers, challenging neighbouring land owners, the odd virgin balloonist and asbestos dumping, car crashed fences and (badly) graffitied interpretation boards and being sued for being a suicide hotspot. The realities of managing beautiful places in a human riddled world.

Sam lapped it all up. And we bought this amazing book. Did you know there were wild boar roaming North East of Scotland, or bearded seals that look like Victorian gentlemen? Dave was most excited when we told him about the feral goats and where to find them. And then there's the fact that one of the wildcat hotspots seems to be on top of our house...Thumper fooling everyone again no doubt.

And that zoology building, aside from its tragic history when it was first being built, for as much as it is a building immersed in learning about the natural world and human impacts, it's a most unnatural concrete monstrosity. Although I've always loved its lecture theatre, for giving me the occasional wee taste of dear green places in a crazy stupid world.