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

  • Time to get rid of the flat earthers

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    There’s not as much Bush-and-Blair bashing as some of the audience would like. Every side-swipe at the US, often concealed with mock diplomacy (“we all know what country I am talking about”) prompts a ripple of applause – you get the feeling that a full frontal attack on these arrogant and deluded leaders would bring…

  • All the world’s a blog

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    Confessions of a sex addict, diaries of a housewife, true stories of life in Baghdad. Where will we find the time to read all the blogs that all the other people find the time to write?

  • Before Eden

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    They were like images from hell. Bulldozers descended into smoking pits 150 feet deep to demolish mountains of colliery waste. In some cases the ‘bings’ of derelict mines were still burning at temperatures of 1000°C as diggers, chained together for safety, worked their way slowly but surely round six redundant pits in the centre of…

  • You’ve got to start somewhere

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    I am very excited by the blog my sons have given me for my birthday. Every now and then I unwrap my present.

  • Open Space

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    Our multicultural Open Space event was a step into the unknown. We did not know how many people would come or what they would choose to talk about. Invitations to the event simply asked people to bring their ‘burning issues’ around the question of what it is like to live in multicultural Leith.

  • City Talks

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    From October 2003 to June 2008 I was a non-executive director  of Edinburgh City Centre Management Company (ECCM). During that time I became fascinated by the intangible qualities that make cities tick and had great fun editing a slightly quirky newsletter about culture, commerce and the importance of public space. Meanwhile ECCM has morphed into…