The weather is raw today and, basking in the virtuous glow of having got up early and gone to pilates in the village with Mum, I am now hunkered down in the library, log burner stoked, for the foreseeable. There have been rather too many similar days of late for my liking, and my moral fibreContinue reading “Hunkering Down”
Tag Archives: wildlife
Softly Softly
To my drilled nose (healing nicely thank you – really not that bad at all, just a lingering sore throat and strange “dangly” sensation like a tonsil trying to escape) we must add Keith’s extracted tooth. It is now incumbent on Mum to bite her tongue whilst Lachlan pokes a finger in his eye for theContinue reading “Softly Softly”
Reflections on reflections
As the brightness of summer begins to fade, the woods around us grow ever lighter, gaining an almost fragile airiness. Windows appear in the canopy as leaves fall down into foosseling drifts below. Now there are just a few narrowly arched casements and tiny aureoles, but by November we will look through an astragal glazedContinue reading “Reflections on reflections”
Foraging Season
It seems as though we stepped off the plane from Corfu straight into mid autumn. Whilst we were sunning ourselves the brambles and gooseberries had been and gone and the fat Ruthven blackbirds had stripped our rowan of berries. Sloes have also been few and far between this year. And so it was that whenContinue reading “Foraging Season”
Garden Manumission
With Lachlan on a new work placement, mum and I are back on dog walking detail. Autumn seems to be trying out different weather moods. Over the course of a fortnight we have yomped across the fields in the blazing sun, battled the wind along the river path and drizzled our way through dripping woods.Continue reading “Garden Manumission”
September Songs
With Lachlan home again, mum and I have been rather rationed on the dog walks lately. Opportunities have had to be snatched when the bold boy is away on Landrover repair visits or social forays to Edinburgh for a little high life. Down by the river on a blustery day last week a monumental MayanContinue reading “September Songs”
Picking up the threads
I am coming up for air again after a tough couple of months, picking up the threads of normal life. Dad’s health started to decline badly last month and our days were filled with the trip to and from Galashiels and increasingly painful, powerless, bedside vigils. Ishbel and Lachlan came home and, as Ishbel tookContinue reading “Picking up the threads”
A reckoning…
The weather gives and the weather takes. In the end the reckoning comes…. Since the wind changed at the end of June we have been promised thunderstorms daily. Any yet, the days have continued hot and sultry, with barely the odd spit spot here and there during the day (though the lawns have welcomed someContinue reading “A reckoning…”
Summer catch up
Oh dear it has been an age since I waxed lyrical on the birds and (worryingly scarce) bees and hedgerow flowers. We have been locked on the gerbil wheel of garden open day preparation for well over a month, weeding and planting and generally faffing round the garden. whilst I have managed to squeeze inContinue reading “Summer catch up”
Tangles and twinings
The grass by the river bank is long and lush. Where they mowed the paths to the fishing beats a week ago there are now two good inches of springy turf underfoot and to either side the sward is long enough to hide a woolly dog. The heaps of mown grass have “matured” and LyraContinue reading “Tangles and twinings”