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 throughout the year. 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
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Poetry and song for a pandemic
Look up. Only look up. The night sky framed in my window is an escape from lockdown. Into darkness or light?
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Freedom to speak – and listen with undivided attention
Despite disagreeing, it felt like we had made a genuine human connection. A rare experience, social media makes it too easy for us to stay in our comfort zones, divided, agitated and enraged.
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Take to the streets: Edinburgh’s green space is not for sale
A robin sings into the night from a bare branch tree. The sound, sad-sweet in the din and dazzle of Edinburgh’s Christmas markets, seems to come from another world.
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West Highland trainlines of poetry
No need for narrative as the small Scotrail train pulls out of Glasgow Queen Street – the coming and going of industrialisation is written on the landscape.
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Leith: where local needs are global
There’s no quick fix. No instant gratification for community campaigners in a consumer society. “We need to know how power works, how politics works. You can’t just order democracy online and get it delivered the next day!”
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Balanced in between Ireland and Britain
When Marcia died in 1991, seven years before the Good Friday Agreement, her coffin was carried downhill to the church, Ulster-style, the weight born on the shoulders of men from friends and family. Balanced between Catholics, Protestants and non-believers.
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Five poems to defy populists
I wrote this for the 2019 election when there was good reason to be fearful. Five years on, we face another election in a turbulent time. And yet. Courageous compassion and conscience are precious human strengths. These five poems defy fear, anger and distrust.
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‘Who is it for?’ the big question at the heart of Dundee’s McManus
Who is culture for? A trip to Dundee’s McManus explores the meaning of ‘widening access’ and the purpose behind a welcome at the door.
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Let nature sing? Our blackbird sings the blues
#LetNatureSing. Are we listening? In front of our eyes and ears, the natural world is shrinking. ‘Let Nature Sing’ is a lyrical call to action. The RSPB recorded birdsong has the haunting sound of another time, a forgotten place.
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What are we stumbling into? Messages of hope and fear from Amsterdam
How can we be so careless? We cannot afford to forget lessons of another time when populist opportunists arose from recession to destroy human decency.
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In search of the emotional museum
Can museums use popular culture to engage a wider audience? What better time could there be to explore what shapes our identities? Let’s hit the road…
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Edinburgh Makars mak mischief
No mics, no loudspeakers, no wham-bam poetry slam. This was a poetry stand-up with a difference – a gently subversive event in the commercial centre of Edinburgh.