
SOMETIMES THERE’S a bit of a happenstance about coincidence, if you know what I mean, unless you think it’s all just a by-chance sort of occurrence of no real significance. I like to think that sometimes one thing leads to the next, and while there may be no earth-shattering consequence, for a brief moment a connection has been made. (…read on »)

IT’S BEEN a week out and about with the dogs. We meet a dipper down by the side of the burn. He flies ahead of us as far as the wooden plank which serves as a bridge then, deciding enough is enough, flies back to where he started. I look back and see the white breast, like an evening shirt, dipping up and down in farewell as he (or maybe it’s she) bobs and curtseys to the world at large. Some day that plank will give way and someone will get a dooking. (…read on »)

NEW YEAR heralds the turn in the road. Imperceptibly the mornings get lighter and the evenings lengthen out. We still have to get through February which can sometimes seem like the ‘dreip’ on the end of winter’s nose, but I’ve been anticipating the sense of regeneration which is evident all around. (…read on »)

THE DOYENNE, it was, who saw him first, lit up in the car headlights. A sad wee figure at the side of the verge obviously separated from his family and uncertain what to do about it. I went back with her to see if we could catch him and reunite him with his owners. (…read on »)