When I was a child we had a special bear called “Big Ted”. He had a wife called “Koala” who for reasons I don’t recall came from Australia (strangely enough). He also had a number of friends including “Mrs Ted”, “Mrs Bun” and their children “Little Ted” and “Little Bun”. Poor old Big Ted was […]

Earlier this year R and I ran a conference in Glasgow. One of our prizes which we handed out was a huge stuffed Heilan’ Coo which we christened “Hamish”. A little girl who had been attending with her father was very keen on winning it and we were delighted when in fact she did (quite […]

Don’t think I’ve ever seen such a rich collection of fungi as have appeared this year.

Our holiday didn’t turn out very well one way and another as we were hit with storm Ali. We went to Cawdor castle and although the building itself was very interesting, our walk afterwards was a disaster. We set out to walk on a five mile circuit round the estate in bright sunshine but at […]

Nice to see that with the accounts of diminishing bee numbers that they seem to be thriving in the Highlands. Perhaps it is just that some of these places are a bit bleak, and where there is a nice walled garden with load of flowers, they take their opportunity where they can get it. The […]

R and I are on holiday this week – first of all up in the far north (staying near Dingwall), and then in Skye for a few days. We stayed at the Muckrack Country House hotel for one night to break the journey, and also so we could visit the Highland Wildlife park. We had […]

Sad reference there to an old advertisement for chocolate. Ignore if under the age of 40. We have many, many hazel trees in our garden, and when we first moved here I was enthused by the idea of gathering them and using them in cooking. Also I’m very fond of them just as a munchie. […]

I bought some spicy dried peas for myself at the weekend. As I didn’t eat them immediately, R purloined them and took them off to his office. I was in the kitchen and heard a loud strangled noise, which was vaguely reminiscent of the noise Tigger made in the story when he was trying to […]

According to R, 31st August is the last day of summer. I’m not too convinced of this as around here we have plenty of days in October which are nicer than July. But anyway, as it was a nice(ish) day today, I went for a swim, probably the last of the year in “Golum’s Pool”. […]

But stuff I don’t dare to touch this time. There are mushrooms everywhere now, but unfortunately I’m no expert on distinguishing the tasty from the indifferent and the fatal! I’m also told this is not something you want to “read up on and give it a go” – you really need an expert to go […]