Scots Dictionary of Nature, A

Scotland is a nation of dramatic weather and breathtaking landscapes. Its mountains, glens, rivers, lochs and seas are world-renowned for their beauty and their bounty. And over centuries the people who have lived, explored and thrived in this land developed language to describe their surroundings, a lexicon of Scottish words that have been shaped by the landscape and wildlife. In A Scots Dictionary of Nature, artist Amanda Thomson shares with us this language of Scotland, from the word describing an owl's call on a warm summer evening (huam) to the onomatopoeic splorroch - walking in wet mud. Combining sections on land, wood, weather, birds, water and walking, this is a rich vocabulary gathered from traditional texts, dictionaries and in conversation, an evolving catalogue of centuries lived between the mountains and and the sky.