Dung Beetle

11/03/2024

Got a website in development. You can see beginnings of it here. It is going to be a personal blog type thing. You can see the bones of it https://dungbeetle.scot The i formation page explains why Dung Beetlr

17/02/2024

Found this today on Glasgow City Council Website. Please get involved or share post if you live in Glasgow.

Glasgow City Council are working in partnership with LitterLotto and Keep Scotland Beautiful, to encourage more people to develop good habits and bin their litter responsibly. This in turn will help combat the growing issue of litter in our communities.

30/12/2023

Thinking of starting an guerilla groop called Clean Up Maryhill. It will involve guerilla removal of dogsh*t and litter so no one catches you doing it and takes the p**s. I don't know, after Marc Bolan could be seen at every bus stop telling us all to Keep **B###### Tidy in the 1970's. I never thought I would see the day when picking up litter became a **the use of the B word is offensive to many people so for the purpose of this post it relates to the landmass and not an identity or population.

14/12/2023

🩶🩶🩶

14/12/2023

Those who want change use cash. This must be the cheesiest catch line of all time. Order of buying stuff. 1/reuse, recycle 2/ give stuff away accept stuff freely 2/ barter 3/ buy second hand using cash 4/buy second hand using card 5/ buy new and local cash 6/ buy new buy local card/phone 7/ if you must buy on internet use an independent company 8/ last resort amazon but for each item bought you have to go outside and litter pick for an hour.
Feel free to add own suggestions. Picture below recycled socks.

14/12/2023

I remember an argument with my mum. We were going to the local village sports day. The highlight of this event was the Cumberland Wrestling. I have only written that to emphasise that in Cumbria (northern England) sports isn't all cricket and tennis. It is two burly blokes hurling each other around in a small circle and maybe a gurning competition. I digress the argument was about what to wear. My mother insisted I wear a dress. This was not my normal. I didn't have a dress. My sister did and offered to lend it to me. Under pressure I agreed but then my mum asked me to iron it which I flatly (no pun intended) refused to do. The argument was huge. I have no memory of the outcome. Please don't force your kids (I was 16) to go to things wearing stuff that makes them uncomfortable because you are worried about other people's opinions. Maybe family arguments should be a new sport. Maybe it already is.

This is my all-time favourite image of Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling. It’s a great photograph, apart from anything else. And a great sports photograph. It was taken in 2015 by Jill Rob…

12/12/2023

I walked the dogs well before light. It was raining. There was nothing to hear except the rain on the path and the wind pushing through the trees. The dogs were untethered. If I wanted to know where they were I just stood and listened Sometimes I could hear them crunching through the undergrowth sometimes they arrived at my feet without making a sound. There was one other soul out on this dark wet sub morning. A large person in dark clothes approaching from the opposite direction. We each kept to our own side of the path. When we got within a stone's throw I stood to one side and watched as they walked past. If anything threatening happened I had a two way escape route. I wasn't scared it was instinctual preservation. The other person also seemed in tune with their instinct and moved to the far side of the path as they passed me. Communication was had "I am safe, you are safe" although no words were spoken and no eye contact made. The dogs came to rest at my side and stayed with me until we were home. We know so much more about so much more when we stay silent, listen and feel. It was a grand walk.

22/08/2023

Been a tricky few days. There is a mighty fight going on between being meaningful things and conformity. Permanently struggling with a puzzle. If not this puzzle then another and it is exhausting. When I was a teenager I believed that if I tried hard enough I would dissolve into my surroundings and become formless. I don't know if this is a trauma reaction or a truth. It may be both. That feeling of becoming nothing still lives here and is heightened the more I try to separate myself from the material world.

The essential thing is to change the way you fight. Sometimes changing to way you fight can be just to stop fighting. Stop playing the game. Be a model for your own truth and tip toe through other people's.

This is a work in progress poem. Sums up something of where we/I am now.

21/08/2023

Do other people ever feel like this? Today I am going to pick up a food parcel from too good to go. It is a three mile walk. I usually do it without thinking. Today I am going to go in my car because I am tired. The guilt I feel at getting in my car is huge. Need to get my bike fixed that will solve the problem. Maybe working towards minimum impact will help to ease the guilt.

17/08/2023

Today I am hoping to order a new, safe log burner. I use money now just for things that will make my life sustainable in the long term and help me become as self sufficient as possible. Am thinking of getting one of these. Will measure today to see if the one with the back flue will fit as would be nice to have a bit of cooking space on top.

It’s been a year since we installed our new multi-fuel stove, The Hobbit, on our sailboat. We’ve used it exclusively to heat our boat over this past (very co...