Insect Eden
It’s a warm summer day and I’ve stopped to eat my lunch on the Union Canal towpath near Falkirk. A bough of dog rose is nodding above my head and I’m surrounded by a cloud of cow parsley and violet-blue cranesbill, with speedwell and buttercups at my feet. Small moths flit through the grasses, the air is thrumming with the sound of bees, and a thrush is providing musical entertainment.
Yet I’m in an urban setting: 70% of Scotland’s population lives within 30 miles of where I’m sitting. Not 100 yards in front of me, invisible beyond the tall hedgerow on the opposite side of the canal, is a new-build housing estate, and lying a mile or so behind my back is the smoking, sprawling industrial site of Grangemouth Refinery.
My journey started on a damp
