Eion - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I'm from a wee Scottish island in the ocean, but a thirst for knowledge, and live music, took me away and work keeps me from home. I've traveled far and wide (America, Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan), but my paradise can be found up the west coast of Scotland where the mountains meet the sea.

I've spent the last few summers doing voluntary conservation work with the Icelandic Environment Agency ( UST ), the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers ( BTCV ), the National Trust for Scotland ( NTS ) and LBV Starnberg in Germany.
As a volunteer I've: planted thousands of native trees in the Scottish Highlands; built dry stone walls from Lundy in the Bristol Channel to Hoy in Orkney; laid hedgerows in three English counties and planted it in a fourth; built and repaired walking trails in many remote parts of Iceland and Scotland; and removed invasive species in Britain, Germany, Iceland and Italy.

Boardwalk construction, Skaftafell National Park, Iceland

Along with 107 like-minded people concerned about global warming, I took the FLY NO MORE pledge to reduce my carbon footprint by no longer flying between any two points in the UK linked by the national rail network. Iâ€™d urge you to follow our example and do the same.

My Interests

anti-capitalism, baking bread, climate change, cycling (orange p7 and kona cinder cone are my rides), fairtrade, family and friends, greenpeace , iceland, islands, john muir trust , menhirs, munros, oxfam , photography , prehistoric art, punk, rspb , seashores, secondhand bookshops, socialism, surfing, tea and biscuits, travel, valve radios, volunteering, wwf , wilderness walks, whisky (island malts of course)

I'd like to meet:

I'd like to: hear how you're fighting climate change on behalf of the "climate canaries"; meet you on a conservation project; drink brennivin with Dave Grohl; and check out Carnac with Julian Cope.

Music:

ash, belle and sebastian, martyn bennett, billy bragg (my first gig), buffalo tom, johnny cash, the charlatans, the clash, graham coxon (my latest gig), julian cope, crash my model car, dinosaur jr, doves, dresden dolls, eels, feeder, foo fighters, green day, pj harvey, hetty and the petticoats, hole, husker du, idlewild, the jam, the jesus and mary chain, joy division, the lemonheads, lou reed, the new pornographers, new york dolls, nirvana, placebo, the pixies, the pogues, primal scream, radiohead, ramones, the raveonettes, razorlight, r.e.m., the sex pistols, sigur ros, sister vanilla, snow patrol, bruce springsteen, the stone roses, supergrass, teenage fanclub, kt tunstall, the undertones, the verve, the view, the wedding present, paul weller, the white stripes and too many wonderful wee scottish bands to mention (see my friends)

Movies:

whisky galore (49), the great escape (63), the jungle book (67), the italian job (69), star wars (77), big wednesday (78), the deer hunter (78), restless natives (85), the big blue (89), schindler's list (93), clerks (94), blue juice (95), the usual suspects (95), fight club (99), stigmata (99), the green mile (99), amelie (01), dogtown and z-boys (01), crash (04), walk the line (05)

Television:

i prefer radio but... black books, deal or no deal, grand designs, the good life, later with jools holland, northern exposure, porridge, still game, two thousand acres of sky

Books:

i'm bad for buying far more books than i ever actually read, anyway... john buchan, douglas coupland (we share a birthday), roald dahl, william gibson, jean giono, andrew greig, johnny green, howies catalogue, ted hughes, arnaldur indridason, primo levi, richard mabey, george mackay brown, duncan mclean, farley mowat, george orwell, ian rankin, james robertson

Heroes:

lance armstrong, the dalai lama, leo houlding, james lovelock, shane macgowan, george mackay brown, john muir, john peel, shanaze reade, joe strummer and my granny

My Blog

Midway still

After 5 weeks of volunteering with UST in S.E. Iceland I have reached Reykjavik for the first time this summer. It's all been going really well so far fine weather, cool people, good work done. I'm...
Posted by Eion on Wed, 04 Jul 2007 02:41:00 PST

Spring into Summer

Last night I was woken at 03.40 by an itchy insect bite. Our grass is thick with wee beasties once more. I went in search of tea tree oil to sooth the itch and when done returned to bed. As I lay back...
Posted by Eion on Mon, 21 May 2007 03:40:00 PST

Gentian and sphagnum

So me and a few mates headed over to Germany by rail in late April to help our friends at LBV (Landesbund fur Vogelschutz) in the conservation of nature reserves in Southern Bavaria. LBV is a Bavarian...
Posted by Eion on Tue, 08 May 2007 01:11:00 PST

Flight Pledge

A BIG thank you to everyone (all 107 of you) who signed my FLY NO MORE pledge to reduce their carbon footprint by no longer flying between any two points within the UK linked by the national rail netw...
Posted by Eion on Mon, 07 May 2007 03:10:00 PST

Save the planet, not money

What is worth more to you, money or the planet? If events these past few weeks are anything to go by the planet is more important to just 1 in every 100,000 people here in the UK. For evidence of ...
Posted by Eion on Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:14:00 PST

Travel at illegal speed?

Is it time to stop travelling at illegal speeds?I've been wondering if the time has come to cut air travel out of my life. As well as keeping my feet on the ground this would involve not buying goods,...
Posted by Eion on Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:02:00 PST

OFF OFF ON

This past week The Guardian newspaper asked Britain's green experts to suggest the single thing people should do this year to become greener. Ben Stewart, spokesman for Greenpeace:"I think thi...
Posted by Eion on Sun, 07 Jan 2007 12:54:00 PST

Ebb and Flow

I have spent many a happy hour on the seashore. Beach litter is not only an eyesore; it's a global problem having a major impact on wildlife and the greater marine environment. Worldwide, over a mil...
Posted by Eion on Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:20:00 PST

Funusual

Dirty water kills. More than 25,000 people die every day because of water-borne disease. With water filters, tap stands and tanks to supply water to 1,000 people a day, Oxfam has the solution that sav...
Posted by Eion on Thu, 28 Dec 2006 03:01:00 PST

Two wheels forward

Cars are weapons of mass destruction.Two wheels (gears optional) are the way forward. Buy the funky Fairtrade certified organic t-shirt by People Tree at ethicalsuperstore.com. ...
Posted by Eion on Thu, 14 Dec 2006 04:23:00 PST