Category: Tales from Pond Cottage
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Let’s ring the bells of springtime
Pause for a moment. I started writing this a few weeks ago and the wider world has become even more turbulent. I know there are places where the sky threatens a more deadly deluge than rain. Yet…I go in search of springtime magic and spend most of the walk looking down. The sky is grey, gloomy…
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Living and learning with swans
We are co-dependents, if you like. We don’t just want these beautiful birds to survive, we need them to. Symbols of nature’s resilience. Besides, the parents have shown imaginative skills of their own.
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Jack Frost welcomes proper winter to Pond Cottage
He’s at it again. That Jack Frost has turned another cold night into a glittery masterpiece on the bedroom window.
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Solstice sunrise, salute the turning of the year
I have my moments of despair, the doomster feeling that we’ve cooked ourselves a new dark ages. Yet, the sun is shining. After dreary days of relentless rain that alone would be worth getting out of bed for but there’s an extra pleasure in the knowledge that this marks a turning point in the year.…
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The Resilience of Swans: Parenting Lessons from Pond Cottage
On another wet and windy day we return to Pond Cottage after a night away, pausing by the gate to check the postbox. And there’s a surprise package, a gift that brightens the gloom: a delightful sketch of our Mother Swan by the talented artist Rowena Millard.
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Mud pies and memories of freedom
Open the door and there’s a big green velvet curtain to keep the living room warm, in granny’s bedroom a pretty dressing table set decorated with pink – maybe purple? – flowers. A potty tucked discreetly under the bed. No bathroom. The toilet is outside in a whitewashed washhouse. At bedtime the grandchildren are marched…
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A gift of hope
Green shoots of hope – I’ve just had a lovely message from a generous man, a rare philanthropist, who is offering to match the money we raise this year for CHAS (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland) through our Scotland’s Gardens Scheme openings. He means it, he was so impressed by what he learned about CHAS when…
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Galanthus “Trumps” at Pond Cottage
Here we are. At the start of our visiting season I’m not in the best of moods but I stop reading the news to take a walk round the garden and I can’t help smiling when I find the snowdrop given by a dear, gardening friend last year. Perky, eye catching, Galanthus “Trumps” could do…
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A Himalayan birch for Ronnie
“I just enjoy being among the mountains, that’s good enough, I don’t need to get to the top…” Ronnie Faux, born Burnley 8 November 1935, died Carlisle 16 July 2024. Before this turbulent 2024 ends, there’s still just time to add one more tree story. We have planted a Himalayan birch in memory of our…
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Plants, pollinators, people: welcome to the Pond Garden
How to plan and plant for wildlife in our new climate of uncertainty? I’m searching for ideas in the era of adaptation. There’s great advice from experts but I can also learn a lot from close encounters with the pollinators feasting on self-sown flowers at Pond Cottage. Great opportunists. True survivors.
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Close encounters with birds: our best start to the day
Possibly our most enjoyable experience at Pond Cottage. Counting birds has a serious scientific purpose but in a world of human chaos, I find few sights more cheering than close encounters with these beautiful unblinking creatures. Thank you @BTO_Scotland
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Every tree tells a story at Pond Cottage
Planting a tree is to have hope for the future… The old oak tree The story so far. On a sunny afternoon in May a small group gathered among the trees at Pond Cottage to explore how storytelling can reconnect people with the natural world. And what we all gain when we do.