Category Archives: Landscape

Poetry path

In the hills a few miles outside our village of Birnam is a Camphill community. Here, on the Corbenic estate, 27 adults with learning difficulties live with their carers and a number of volunteers in 50 acres of agricultural land, … Continue reading

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Feet of clay

Last night I finished reading H is for Hawk, Helen MacDonald’s extraordinary and much-fêted memoir about how she worked through her grief at her father’s death by training a goshawk. I loved the book for the luminosity of the writing, … Continue reading

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Altchroskie

I first met my friend Pete Clark almost 25 years ago, shortly after we had moved into our house in Strathardle, one of Perthshire’s least known and prettiest glens. The house was called Altchroskie (‘alt’ means stream or burn in … Continue reading

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Lost in the fog

From to time fighter planes come roaring over our village on their way to Lossiemouth, or heading off to do whatever they do over the emptiness of the Highlands. Dunkeld sits in the cleft of the Tay valley, at the … Continue reading

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Winter spell

The last four days have felt like real winter. The thermometer has hardly risen above zero since I arrived here. The cold bites my cheeks as soon as I step outside and the snow crunches underfoot. Through the picture windows … Continue reading

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Wayfaring strangers

When I got home at lunchtime today there was a large and magnificent-looking book sitting on my kitchen table. It was warmly inscribed to me by its author, my close neighbour, Fiona Ritchie. Fiona is the presenter of The Thistle … Continue reading

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Wild geese

On Monday I returned from a week’s holiday in Mallorca to a different season. The trees are turning, the first dusting of snow has been sighted on the tops of the Munros, and the greylag are on the move. It’s … Continue reading

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Ham central

My last post was written on the plane on the way to Spain, two weeks ago. The weather in the Andalucian hills is changeable at this time of year and the rain did not stay mainly on the plain. Still, … Continue reading

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Ubi caritas

These last ten days or so have been spectacular. There’s a generosity in the air, a sense of abundance. All around us the woods are carpeted with bluebells. Sprays of hawthorn blossom decorate hedges and roadsides. The trees are bursting … Continue reading

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Deep water

After the debate that last week’s post provoked (and thanks to everyone who commented, online and offline), I thought I would write about something slightly less contentious this week – sheep, for example. But the first thing that came to … Continue reading

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