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

  • Green tax, blue motion, red squirrel

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    Red squirrel, Blue Motion, what’s the connection? Well there’s a nice surprise.  I just paid my car tax online and it turned out to be a pleasant experience. Not only because a dinky little car guides you along each stage of the journey on the DVLA website but at the end of it the bill…

  • Lost World replaced

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    The next instant it was gone – and so was our dinner. Ed Malone in the Lost World Hot foot in the snow to St Andrew Square to check poetry stakes are still in place. So far so good, though last week I obviously blogged too soon. The Lost World vanished from the garden within…

  • Planting poetry and other subversive thoughts

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    On the No 8 bus this morning I peered anxiously out of the window as we passed St Andrew Square.  Ever since I helped to plant poetry in the garden for the Lost World Read the weather seems to be doing its best to blow the whole lot to the kingdom of Fife. Or some…

  • Cafe culture thrives in Broughton

    Cafe culture thrives in Broughton

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    Looking out the window it is hard to believe this is the same district we came to more than 30 years ago.

  • Food could save the planet – and the economy too

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    Last night’s meeting at Out of the Blue was cold. Like everyone else Celia and I kept our coats on and held on to hot drinks as long as we could. But the discussion at the Food Summit was so heart warming it reinforced my hunch that food (or how we grow and eat it)…

  • Elk ride again – and again

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    “I suggest taking a couple of deep breaths, putting your head down and going like hell.” Many happy returns. I’m opening my blog for the first time this year to find an old story has come back to life. Very nearly two years ago I posted a picture sent to me by my cousin Beryl…

  • What broken society?

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      New media gives schoolchildren the chance to present their own view of the world And there at last was Crawfordjohn; a ribbon of wet tarmac unwinding to a small place hidden in the South Lanarkshire hills.  A village so small the church had to close and there are only 12 children in the primary…

  • Window shopping in Amsterdam

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    Dressed for Christmas: not all goods are as well wrapped as the amaryllis. There’s a lot of life on show in Amsterdam shop windows. Claire summed it up with a phrase I wish I had thought of. On her first night she went for a stroll and returned wide eyed at goods on offer in…

  • Amsterdam here we come

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    I am closing down the computer and then it’s off to Amsterdam for a few days. Looking forward to it all the more because Roel has sent a link to the galleries and exhibitions this month and a last minute email from Fran directs me to Vertigo Cafe in Vondel Park. It’s near the Film…

  • Open books, open minds

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    This is London, in Edinburgh the living books wore black T shirts How odd that none of our local press took an interest in this event, Scotland’s first Living Library. In other cities (from the first event in Copenhagen to the latest UK event in Bradford) the place has been crawling with reporters and cameras.…

  • Meet the ‘living blog’

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    Oh dear, what have I left myself in for? I am sitting between two poets, in front of us there’s a war veteran and a man from Alcoholics Anonymous. All around me there are people with amazing stories to tell: people from Africa, China, Poland, Dubai as well as Edinburgh. We are here because we…

  • Red squirrel comes to Pond Cottage

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    There was a moment of disbelief. We’ve got so used to chasing grey squirrels from the bird table (there is no such thing as a squirrel-proof feeder) that I thought the sun must be playing tricks with the colour. But this squirrel really was red and, we have since discovered, possibly the first sighting of…