One thing always leads to another
I’m a journalist. I’ve always been curious about people and places.
I started writing about other people’s gardens a long time ago and somehow I’ve ended up having a wild garden that’s open to the public.
This site is a collection of my writing on gardens, culture, wildlife, the environment and even a little politics.
The garden is open through Scotland’s Garden Scheme supporting Children’s Hospices Across Scotland.
We are open throughout the year. Please don’t hesitate to let us know when you’d like to come. Just fill in the Contact form. Give us a call. Find out more about Pond Cottage Garden
-
Everybody loves the sunshine…with a little cooling breeze
“Just bees, and things and flowers” Like a lot of formerly news-hungry journalists these days I can hardly bear to open the many journals I subscribe to. But earlier this year I read the FT’s Life of a Song. And Roy Ayers Sunshine blew Trump thunderstorms away.
-
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.
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Four poems for a budget of winners and losers – what hope?
Who and where are life’s winners and losers? North, South, East, West, there’s precious little poetry in the words and numbers of budgets, but pausing for breath on edge of Winter Solstice darkness, here’s a selection of poems drawing on a wealth of experience, the kind of human insight that could enhance political debate – and…
-
Rewilding: or how to be led by Nature
It’s been ploughed and cultivated for perhaps 200 years. How to turn an acre of field into a wild garden?
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
Tree stories stir hearts and perhaps a sense of hope
I hadn’t expected to be quite so engrossed. For the next two hours I never once thought about taking my phone out of my pocket