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

  • Hard rain

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    ‘I saw a new born baby with wolves all around it’ A cool summer evening, cold pink wine in paper cups, a black band preparing to dance in bare feet and Bob Dylan’s voice tearing the air with the chill message of A Hard Rain’s A-gonna Fall. The Zawose Family have lost a lot since…

  • FEAST your eyes

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    Delighted to discover MK has posted pictures of The FEAST on Flickr. Here’s just one of them, have a look at the others on the slideshow, enough to make your mouth water.

  • Preparing for The FEAST

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    I am just wondering how to write about last night’s event when I discover Rob has beaten me to it. He must have been up a lot earlier than me today because he has already posted pictures and words about a sampling session at Out of the Blue in the Old Drill Hall capturing the…

  • Flying down to Barra

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    This is the way to do it. Our luggage is pulled to the plane by a small tractor. Security guards make friendly small talk while they sift through our bags. In the air the pilot calls out landmarks as we race seagulls and clouds over the Sound of Barra. When we land at Glasgow a…

  • Live Earth?

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    “The trail of Homo Sapiens, serial killer of the biosphere, reaches to the farthest corners of the earth.” E.O. Wilson, The Future of Life. I took E.O. Wilson with me to the West Coast but I didn’t read a page over the weekend. He is a fantastic writer, he makes science sing, but there is…

  • Happy 4th July

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    Waking to good news is a rare feeling. I don’t think I could feel happier about Alan Johnson’s release if he was a member of my own family. I sit over my morning cup of tea listening to the BBC team welcoming him back, ‘ a very happy fourth of July’ he calls it.

  • Was it Borat wot won it?

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    It’s not my project – it’s the City of Edinburgh Council project and the Scottish government is providing financial support at the request of the Opposition parties in Parliament. John Swinney, SNP Finance Secretary, as quoted in the Evening News. Maybe, but there’s a more serious question about the SNP’s sudden change of mind over…

  • Borat for first minister

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    Here’s an appeal from Friends of the Earth asking campaigners for Edinburgh’s tram to pass on a pdf depicting Alex Salmond (biggest fish of the SNP) as Borat. I can’t work out how to upload the pdf so, even better, here’s a photo of someone outside the Scottish Parliament getting across the message that even…

  • Hiding from Hendrix

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    There were no helicopters to drop stars from the sky. Hendrix arrived in a Vauxhall Velux driven by the lead guitarist of a local band – the promoter had booked them to be sure of a crowd.

  • Stubbed

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    Here’s to active citizenship. I was walking home, drenched to the skin, after a downpour that brought small floods to cobbled streets, when I met a hardy soul in wellies and raincoat trying to clear a blocked drain in one of the more expensive streets of Edinburgh’s New Town. Holy smoke: just a small slick…

  • Hot and cool Berlin

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    How on earth did they get up there? On our last night in Berlin, as it happens the hottest May night on record, we take a boat up the river Spree to see just how much the city has changed since the wall came down. Perched on the ruin of one of the many bridges…

  • Bilbao – icon for Dynamism?

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    How do cities meet the demands of the present without losing the value of their past? John Herring joins Global Gossip with some bold answers in his ‘postcard’ from Bilbao. In the 1980’s Bilbao was presented with an opportunity when the industry and shipping facilities blocking up the city centre moved out to the river…