
“POOR AS a church mouse” is one of these hard luck stories that you hope never happens to you. (more…)

FOR CHRISTMAS I dropped a thinly veiled hint asking for Edward Wilson’s Antarctic Notebooks and was delighted to receive the book. The history of south polar exploration interests me more and more and this book, written by Wilson’s two great-nephews, is an illuminating insight into the outward personality and inner strength of a remarkable man. (more…)

BACKSEAT PASSENGER isn’t my usual place in the car, but that was where I found myself on a trip to Inverness. It meant, of course, that I could watch the wildlife and scenery which I normally get only fleeting glances at or miss altogether. (more…)

IT’S SO frustrating! About ten days ago I was electrified to see a small flock of long tailed tits mobbing the bird feeder outside the kitchen window. There were seven or eight, or there might even have been nine of these delightful, tiny feathered lollipops. Flickering in amongst the coal tits and great tits, fighting to get a share of the food, there was so much movement I couldn’t count just how many there were. They were the first long tailed tits I’d seen in the garden although they are birds of the woodland fringe and we are surrounded by beech trees. (more…)

IT’S TANTALISING to contemplate – had it not been for a hasty decision by his father, Robert Burns might have grown up in Glenesk. (more…)

NEVER WORK with children and animals – don’t tell me about it! (more…)

IMPERIAL HEAD – a term possibly more readily associated with heads of state or empires, but last weekend the Doyenne and I saw at least one. (more…)

OLD SOLDIERS can sometimes only surrender to overwhelming force. The gales brought down a number of venerable beech trees round the house – and a rather rarer Scotch pine has measured its length too. Beeches have a normal lifespan of about 150-200 years and as the woods round here were planted around the end of the eighteenth century it’s no great surprise that there were casualties. (more…)

THE STOOL of Repentance glowers balefully from the corner of the room. My protestations that it would have been ungracious to refuse the offers of seconds of our daughter-in-law’s delicious Christmas dinner – with just a splash of wine to help it down – fell on deaf ears. I fear that, even now, the Doyenne still doesn’t understand me. (more…)

CHILBLAINS USED to be a common winter complaint, but you hardly hear them mentioned these days. (more…)