3 years ago / 320 visits / 2 comments / 2 people like

I've always had a bit of a temper. Liable to get into a strop at a perceived injustice even before I knew what justice was. Which probably explains my earliest memory. If it is a memory that is. The ingredients are a window, a cot, a blanket, an enamel pail, a door, my parents and a poo. I'd just p…

4 years ago / 612 visits / 7 comments / 3 people like

After spending more than a year crawling around the house, holding onto furniture and doors, shopping online and endlessly reading about Brexit, I decided it was madness to be wearing hill-walking gear and began to buy ankle length skirts instead. I went for black because I love black and I felt glo…

4 years ago / 588 visits / 10 comments / 4 people like

There are times when I just can't be bothered taking photographs. When commenting on other people's is just too much for me. When going to the shops or just going up or down stairs is more than I can face. When I was young and busy my idea of heaven was to recline on a sofa and read all day, every d…

6 years ago / 674 visits / 4 comments / 3 people like

What is it with me and holidays ? I had a wonderful time on Mull. The cottage I rented was delightful, the location beautiful and the weather idyllic. The island looked its best. The sun shone every day and I enjoyed every minute. I arrived home suntanned, relaxed and pleased to see my house and nei…

9 years ago / 780 visits / 4 comments / 1 person likes

Never satisfied was a phrase frequently on my mother's lips while I was growing up and she went on saying it when I was an adult too. Now, at seventy five I say it myself. And it's true. The latest example is my Tay project. A hundred photos of the river Tay in 2014. I'm about a third of the way thr…

9 years ago / 916 visits / 9 comments / 2 people like

It's the story of my life. For someone who is fairly cautious, I plunge into things. If an idea catches my imagination, I think "Yes ! I can do that. It will be easy." When I was at work and said it aloud, people used to groan and shrink away. Rightly. It was never easy. Didn't give up though. I str…

9 years ago / 971 visits / 6 comments / 2 people like

I have met three mad axe men in my life, although only one of them actually had an axe. The first one had a bicycle. I was nineteen, never visited France before, and it was Bastille Day. My friends and I were staying near St Omer in a tiny youth hostel down a wooded lane. There was no warden. Just u…

9 years ago / 539 visits / 2 comments / 1 person likes

I've spent a year and a bit going round in circles. "Yes," they said when I had a knee replacement, "you will be able to go hill walking. And yes, you will be able to go up Munros." I took the Munro bit with a pinch of salt but friends with two knee replacements could walk five to seven miles so I w…

9 years ago / 431 visits / 5 comments / 1 person likes

The first rabbit I knew at close quarters was dead. I was sitting in bed in a cold cottage in the middle of nowhere eating my dinner from a tray when it arrived. My two cats and I had come from London to wildest Galloway. I was a city girl and for numberless generations their ancestors had been city…

9 years ago / 590 visits / 4 comments / 1 person likes

They are almost gone. I keep finding them dozing on a flower or a leaf. One nodded off inside a hollyhock. Not a bad way to go. Carder bees are still bustling round the globe thistles but even they are beginning to look a bit tired and worn. And the mornings are getting colder. Autumn is nearly her…

10 years ago / 524 visits / 1 comment / 3 people like

A few years ago I had a house fire. Lots of smoke damage. About 700 books went to the tip. A lifetime's collection. Which was a bit of a test. Last month two hard drives failed and I lost thousands of photos. I have low resolution copies but the RAW files have gone. Another little test, which I may…

10 years ago / 505 visits / 2 comments / 3 people like

Sitting at the back of the house in my new all weather bistro set making a list of things to do in the garden. I am rather close to the feeder and the birds are not pleased. But my heart has hardened. Who pays for the bird food ? The few brave ones are young and naïve. A blue tit not yet blue. A gol…

10 years ago / 472 visits / 1 comment / 3 people like

Sitting on the machair at the top of Bernera watching rabbits. There is a beach of white sand. A turquoise and indigo sea. Small hilly islands off shore and, among the rocks in the bay, an urn like object rising from the waves. It looks tropical. Exotic. Round the corner a burn crosses the beach to…

10 years ago / 530 visits / 2 comments / 4 people like

Lying on a sofa in a holiday let perched on a cliff on the edge of nowhere. Looking at a tiny gleam of sun. The first in days. Until now the light has been flat, the cloud continuous, the wind fierce and the rain horizontal. I am coughing, sneezing, shivering, sniffling. Surrounded by Beecham's p…

10 years ago / 475 visits / 3 comments / 6 people like