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

  • Miss Sixty

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    Just a bunch of…me and my mates growing old disgracefully on a trip to Orkney after Frances spotted the potential of the church name. I used my bus pass for the first time today, cupping it in my hand so only the driver would see it, dousing that half hope that he would refuse to…

  • Writing on the wall

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    Before 2008 arrives I want to post this picture of Berlin because it shows one of the best moments of 2007 for me: saving the planet on a family weekend to celebrate my birthday with the boys in the most exciting city I have been to, what on earth could be better.

  • Dropping the shopping

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    I wonder if this can last. Before Christmas I made myself a promise that I would not get caught up in the panic of shopping for things I didn’t need in places I didn’t want to be. Now it is almost 2008 and I have more or less succeeded. I spent plenty of course –…

  • Monumental achievement

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    A bit shaky, but for goodness sake, we’re looking down on the big wheel on Princes Street. I have no head for heights but last week I got a real kick out of climbing the 192 steps of that spindly monument in the middle of St Andrew Square to look down on the building site…

  • Digesting the lessons of the FEAST

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    Phew! I have finally finished the FEAST and now I have to stop myself clicking on the YouTube link to see how the film viewings are clocking up. (Quite nicely as it happens, wonder if the sponsors have added to the numbers or if it’s all down to friends and family). Alan mixes film with…

  • Tunnel vision

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    He’s a 40 year old policeman who is fed up having to move groups of young people away from street corners. ‘Where can we go Simon?’ they ask him.

  • Trains and boats and (no) planes

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    I’ve just been to Bruges and back without setting foot on a plane. Bruges, by the way, is a beautiful place; one of those living museums (like Venice and Dubrovnik) that still manages to give you a feeling of real life in a quirky time warp of its own making. But for me probably the…

  • Trocabrahma: is it just marketing or the real thing?

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    If Brahma is just trying to sell more beer in Britain this may not be the best way to do it. But if they are aiming to engage hearts and minds by showing how music can bridge the cultural divide, then give them a medal.

  • A question of democracy

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    I heard a remarkable man speak the other night. Dr Thein Lwin used to be a teacher in Burma, now he trains other Burmese teachers in exile in Thailand. They are striving to meet the needs of thousands of children living in refugee camps in Thailand where they have no rights to attend the schools…

  • Curtains

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    This wasn’t intended but every autumn the Virginia Creeper makes beautiful outside curtains for our windows and every year it creeps a little higher. A few years ago this was the view from the kitchen, now it’s at the top of the house.

  • No cider house rules

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    This is what my farming aunt Betty would call a popular apple. That’s what she says when you cut into the windfalls she has brought in for breakfast to find there’s something slimey and squishy already in there.

  • Rock on – or off?

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    One picture worth a thousand words: you can never tell when an advertising slogan will turn sour. I snapped it waiting for the train home after a great weekend in Newcastle – great for us Baltic party goers, not so great for Northern Rock. The run on the bank has stopped but the future is…