{"id":5864,"date":"2012-04-20T16:53:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T15:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/?p=5864"},"modified":"2012-04-20T16:55:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T15:55:53","slug":"the-devil-big-bird-and-the-elixir-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/2012\/04\/the-devil-big-bird-and-the-elixir-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland, the devil, big bird and the elixir of life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I just spent a couple of days out and about filming with The One Show <\/a>for two Best of Britain programs \u00a0which I am co-hosting with Mike Dilger.<\/a>
\nAnd what fun we had.<\/p>\n

It was a whistle stop tour of Scotland. We covered more locations and miles in a couple of days than I can count and my head \u2013 usually fairly empty was packed with facts and figures about the country I cheekily thought I knew quite a lot about.<\/p>\n

Mike is a wild life expert, so whether standing on a beach, on top of a tower, in a graveyard or on a boat if a wee feathered birdie whipped past and let out a trill wee toot Mike would say very matter of factedly \u2018oh yes \u00a0a lesser spotted grebe\u2019 or \u2018 a canadian goose\u2019 or\u00a0 a grungified puddlebuttock or some such thing.\u00a0 Initially I jabbed him in the ribs\u00a0 (well I am from Aberdeen) and said \u2018are you pulling my leg? \u2019 No he said if it\u2019s got a feather then I know all about it.\u00a0 And he did. There were some we heard and saw that were a mystery to me and frankly I was amazed such exotic species live here, above my head, in this here parish 24\/7.<\/p>\n

Literally by the mere pip of a squeak he can ID any feathery bod. Whereas I need to have their passport, a close up photograph and an RSPB book open at the right page. As you can tell I was impressed.<\/p>\n

During our filming the one place that really resonated with me was Balquidder Kirk Graveyard where Rob Roy, his wife and two sons are buried<\/p>\n

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A truly tranquil setting, it was green lush and beautiful and between takes I was just meandering around, brain in neutral enjoying the scenery when Mike said \u2018Ooooh look at this Devils Matchstick \u2018 I looked up but saw no flapping beasties then realised he was pointing at some lichen on a gravestone as he went on to tell us that it grows only the places where the air is at it\u2019s purest<\/p>\n

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The devils in the detail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is startling red, as you can see, and tiny wee spores. \u00a0Gulping in the pure fresh air before we moved on I shuffled about reading the ancient gravestones and discovered people were passing away in their 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s \u00a0in this area which for hundreds of years ago is extraordinary.<\/p>\n

So anyway, I have decided to move to Balquidder.<\/p>\n

Well no I haven’t actually but I quite fancy trying to get some devils head matchstick to grow in the area where I live to see if the air is pure \u00a0round here although a quick glance at my diesel fume stained mongrel and I think I know the answer to that.<\/p>\n

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Oh and if you like birdies, fauna, wild life and stuff then I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll be interested to hear Mikes got a book coming out soon, \u00a0a diary of his and his partners move to the country. \u00a0She did all the illustrations too \u2013 a talented pair.<\/p>\n

Anyway more adventures to report soon but for now \u2013 a hot bath, a hot toddy \u00a0and a good kip.<\/p>\n

Aurra best,<\/p>\n

Big bird.<\/p>\n

If you are a Twitterer I am \u00a0@AlisonCraigTwit and Mike is @DilgerTV – twitchers and twitterers run amock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just spent a couple of days out and about filming with The One Show for two Best of Britain programs \u00a0which I am co-hosting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[1181,1180,1179,1183,1176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}