Fay Young

Trees in full leaf, bright green under a blue sky reflected in the pond: The Pond picture by Fay Young

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 now for spring walks. 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

  • Myth of the month

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    You could have someone’s eye out with that It’s been another good year for Health and Safety myths.  If you have five minutes to spare take a look at the Myth of the Month on the HSE website, it is a cracking good read. In  September they did not stop school kids wearing ties. In…

  • Let’s boldly go into the future – it’s about time

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    Trams connect east and west Berlin What’s not to like about trams?  Why does Edinburgh insist on digging  itself into a dismal hole instead of exciting people with a picture of what a modern transport system means for the city?  Come on, it’s a horrible wet day, let’s go for a YouTube ride on a…

  • Social climbers

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    Suddenly autumn has arrived on my windowsill and dumped a load of red leaves at the back door too.  Hard to believe we once doubted the weedy little Virgian Creeper would rise further than the garden shed.  Now it has not only reached our roof but it is working its way along the houses on…

  • A purple picture is worth a thousand words

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    Maybe it’s a sign of my age, but I am getting quite a taste for purple.

  • Fight, flight or tweet

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    Not Monet’s garden, these lilies are at Taynish on the west coast of Scotland. What’s happened to living in the here and now?  When we were in Paris last week I was amazed to discover art gallery attendants now allow people to take mobile phone pictures of paintings.  The rooms are full of happy snappers…

  • The tenement tree

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    Enlightened city had let you be till Mammon’s grasp said ‘damn the tree’; So far the trees are still there: a splash of green between grey buildings in a grey street. Otherwise only cars and traffic signs add  colour to one of the posher parts of Edinburgh. Planning permission for a new building on the…

  • No mess, just hope

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    The National Portrait Gallery is plastered with graffiti. Empty shops fill with art, music and dance. Subversive signposts undermine the shopping mall. Bright paint covers a grey tenement. Could be the stuff of nightmares for some but to me it is like a dream come true. Ever since I first visited Berlin I have wanted…

  • Written in blood: a message of hope and peace

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    Emmanuel Jal, author and hip hop artist, will be talking about his book War Child at Edinburgh Book Festival. It is likely to be an unforgettable experience. Thanks to Bobby I have a short audio clip of an extraordinary conversation between Emmanuel Jal, the Sudanese ‘war child’ and two young Somali refugees living in Glasgow. …

  • In the eye of the beholder

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    In my minds eye this was a great shot, the outrageous St Edwards church sitting pretty between two farm sheds. A folly framed. Now I come to download it from my new mobile the picture hasn’t turned out quite what I imagined when I was teetering on the wall outside a caravan on Canna in…

  • A poem for President Castro

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    A tourist view of Havana from the roof of the Saratoga hotel Nice coincidence. I am posting my letter to Raul Castro the day the Royal Ballet begins dancing in Havana.   UK media applauds  ‘a new cultural exchange’ with Cuba while I finally get round to supporting the PEN campaign for a different  cultural…

  • Swans rule at Pond Cottage

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    They shall not pass… The picture is not very clear but you get the idea. These swans have no intention of letting anyone get past. When I stand up the adults stand up, when I move  forward so do they, hissing and opening their wings to make sure I get the message. It takes a…

  • Here and (not) there

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    here, there and gone: where? Home is a controversial word for Iyad Hayatleh, a Palestinian poet who was born in a Syrian refugee camp. “The most controversial word of my life,” he told us. He has never been to Palestine but to mark Refugee Week, Iyad read poems about home in Arabic and English as…