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

  • Woke up this morning

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    Too early, even the blackbirds building a nest outside the window are not up yet. I wake at 4 am with my head full of stuff, odd random surreal sounding stuff but it wasn’t a dream, someone actually said, “It’s time we gave this prehistoric plant a voice,” at one of the meetings I was…

  • accidental gardening

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    It’s working. Two years ago with Susie’s help, I planted a B&Q buy-one-get-one-free special offer of miniature narcissus round the stone cairn built by Richard. Moss is doing a great job of covering the stone but the ground was a bit of a problem: too many weeds and it was difficult to mow the grass…

  • Indonesia: waiting for tourists to come

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    Welcome to the first Global Gossip of 2008. I’ve been pestering Dougal for this for ages but he had work to do in Brazil. And Glasgow. As if that was any excuse. Anyway well worth the wait to see why Dougal Perman thinks we should choose Indonesia for a holiday (and remember, for some it’s…

  • The future is orange (marmalade)

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    “Is that you blogging again?” The tone is teasing but perhaps just a tad reproachful. As if I am always up here blogging which of course is not true. After two weeks away from my blog (been too busy blogging elsewhere) I spent yesterday doing something much more productive. Home made marmalade. There is really…

  • Flying off the shelves

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    “Certain supermarkets have claimed that we haven’t made much impact on the demand for free range chicken. Yet from all over the country we’re hearing reports that free range chicken is flying off the shelves…But we need proof!” says Hugh. And here it is: Last week I finally got round to meeting the challenge from…

  • Leith twinned with Havana?

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    It took me a while to find the right place tucked away between high rise flats. By the time I got there the rest of the team were inside having coffee and my blurry mobile picture shows a community garden without people. Even so, the sun was slanting between high walls and if you squint…

  • so much information, how do I find time to write this?

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    In today’s email I have a message from Hugh asking me to go and take pictures of chickens in my local supermarket. There’s the BBC food newsletter with the recipe of the week; the Economist digest of world events (brilliant heading on the Republican presidential campaign: Goodbye, Rudy Tuesday), the Snowmail account of a worsening…

  • Let it snow

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      I miss winter. This year the Scottish ski-ing industry is actually in business again but it still doesn’t feel like proper winter weather. There are geraniums in bloom alongside snowdrops in my back garden and frogs pop their heads out of our little pond every other day as temperatures slip up and down the…

  • Living by numbers

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    This won’t do. It’s 11.35 am and what have I got to show for the day? Half an hour too long in bed, two cups of tea, two cups of coffee, half an hour too long reading the paper, 17 minutes drumming practice (ok, really 20 mins). Time I got down to some work but…

  • Amnesty protest

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    Well, Tommy, Nick and I didn’t get arrested but just for a few seconds I felt a flicker of what it might be like to suffer the real humiliation of Guantanamo as we were ordered to kneel in a pose of submission by a young man in combat gear: “I don’t want to see your…

  • Guantanamo Day

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    Ray has just come in to wish me luck, he hopes I won’t get arrested. Sadly work prevents him joining me on the Guantanamo demo organised by Amnesty today in Edinburgh, London and Belfast. Once Tommy arrives I shall go and collect the six orange boiler suits I booked online in an impulsive moment before…

  • Celebrity chefs and the c word

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    Good for Hugh and Jamie for putting their celebrity to such good use. It is brave of them to challenge the supermarkets for promoting cheap chicken produced in ways any civilised society should be ashamed of. And with RSPCA running a chicken welfare campaign at the same time online petitions are gathering strength at a…