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

  • Empty pond syndrome

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    The birds have flown. Or rather, since this is the moulting season, perhaps they have just shuffled off somewhere downstream. Wherever they have gone and however they got there, the pond seems much too quiet and I am wandering around gloomily counting ducklings and cygnets that are nowhere to be seen. I don’t think it…

  • Fran and Jared’s wonderful wellie boot wedding

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    July is supposedly the most popular month for getting married which is tricky in Scotland when you are planning a woodland wedding. But look at the potential for accessories. Forget the fascinator! Angela has just sent me these great shots of the Pond Cottage wedding of the year. Well, ok, the only PC wedding of…

  • Treading softly from Scotland to France

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    Sun in the south of France: getting here was almost as much fun. It was raining when we reached Paris but I didn’t mind. After Scotland’s cold apology for summer it was warm, welcoming rain and within minutes of getting off our Eurostar we were clinking glasses of wine in Terminus Nord. If we had…

  • After the event

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    Midsummer night’s dream: FOUND in the Palm House while the storm raged outside. I have written so many words elsewhere about Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo in the past six months I have never had time to express what I really feel about this extraordinary, all-consuming project. I would love to have found a few…

  • This is midsummer and I am not dreaming

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    This is Susie Brown’s beautiful bamboo sculpture – let’s hope we get the blue sky Not much more than 24 hours to go now and I am determined to write a little bit about this extraordinary event for my own blog. After months of hard work behind the scenes and miles of emails flashing back…

  • What’s left?

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    I just do not think that a case has been made out for extending the 28 day limit any further, particularly as the other proposals in the Bill allow for questioning to continue after charge. There it is. A brief sample from an honest and convincing email sent to me by a politician I respect…

  • Our man in Brussels braves riots and water canon

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    There’s irony for you. A text from Ray this morning, he’s due to chair a seminar in Brussels on sustainable industry but the whole area is sealed by riot police with water canon against French, Italian and Spanish fishermen demanding cheap fuel. “Our audience may not get through the barriers.” While Ray retreats to the…

  • Poetry and politics in the city

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    It has happened. Thanks to a great group of people led by Ewan, a fantasy lurking at the back of my mind has made it into real life. Yesterday in the Scottish Poetry Library, a treasure of a place tucked out of sight down a close in the Royal Mile, a cluster of literary souls…

  • The unimaginable strength of Chinese women

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    I could hardly watch tonight’s Channel 4 News report from China; it is impossible to imagine the grief of mothers finding the bodies of their children in the rubble of the earthquake. And now I find it difficult to write about the story of an earlier earthquake in China. Of course it is not my…

  • On the road again

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    mocking the myth that the motorcar offers freedom… A good start to the day. Tommy emails to say his print is on sale in an internet gallery specialising in bringing together artists who want to sell and customers who want to buy but don’t know how to find each other. (And this just a week…

  • Between a rock and a hard place

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    I took a second look, “That is plastic isn’t it?” The answer was swift and smart, “Yes, no man was hurt in the making of this display.” Setting up my stall at the Student Festival of Learning in Edinburgh’s Telford College yesterday I soon realised that I was a bit short of merchandise. Thanks to…

  • For the sake of dignity and democracy in Zimbabwe

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    “Ordinary women cannot afford sanitary wear. We are using old pieces of cloth or newspapers. Consequently we’re suffering the loss of our dignity and serious infections, in some cases leading to infertility. Many women are facing violence from their husbands who believe these infections to be sexually transmitted.” Thabitha Khumalo, 2006. Today, when I signed…