Today brought the sad news that Seamus Heaney has died. I wanted to do something to mark his passing and thought of his wonderful poem, Death of a Naturalist.I needed a frog to blip if I was to quote from it. Hmmm. Then I remembered the restaurant with rooms out at Dunstaffnage, and co-incidentally we were going to have tea at nearby Poppies. This explains the froggy sign. What explains the name? Rumour has it that the owner used to have a Beetle car, parked at the entrance. One night, vandals spray painted the car green. The owner thought it looked like a frog, and kept the car and the green paint, and came up with the name. It’s not there now, so this may well be apochryphal, especially as there is a children's book of the same name.. Bit of a dubious connection and nothing at all to do with Heaney’s frog. Except the frog pictured has a glass in his hand, not an unfamiliar action for our poet.

From Death of a Naturalist

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks.

The death referred to is not physical but rather the changing reality and perception of the boy in the poem. It ends with the line

……………………………………………. I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

Seamus Heaney
1939 – 2013

“Through the beauty and elegance of his writing, Seamus Heaney reminded us of the bonds which unite and our duty to uphold the dignity of all. Ireland has lost a legendary man of letters. The world has lost a towering giant of humanity.”

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International.


Tomorrow we leave Argyll to start the journey south. See you all after the weekend.