Back to the wild

A Dutch cow, Her­mien, was on the news because she escaped from a trans­port to a slaugh­ter­house six weeks ago, and has been liv­ing in the woods ever since. Anoth­er news item was about a cow in Poland who escaped and joined a herd of wild bison. The Par­ty for the Ani­mals is rais­ing mon­ey to take …

Beings of light

Here in Aberdeen I work in child­care. When it’s bed­time, I tell the chil­dren sto­ries about Nar­nia. Some­times I also tell sto­ries that I have made up, and we come up with new ideas togeth­er. This always involves a large amount of mag­ic and fan­ta­sy. Sto­ries about strange crea­tures and mys­te­ri­ous pow­ers are not only …

The end of livestock?

Cows graze in the mead­ow and chick­ens roost in the chick­en coop at night — any­one who has suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed kinder­garten can tell you as much. But just as we have not always lived in our com­fy hous­es, the ances­tors of our farm ani­mals led their own lives on the grass­lands and in the forests …

Down the stream

The sur­face of the riv­er is con­stant­ly chang­ing. A small group of ducks rush­es along, float­ing in the stream. The water surges around the stones that pro­trude into the riv­er. With­in a few kilo­me­tres the water will reach the sea. We would like to make this trip with a canoe some time. But for now …