Whanne that April with his shoures sote The droughte of March hath perced to the rote. And smale foules maken melodie, That slepen alle night with open eye, So priketh hem nature in hir corages; Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages A quote from Chaucer at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales and very […]

Beautiful day here today for Mother’s Day and we went down to Rhu to see my parents. The marina looked really scenic with bright blue water and hundreds of white boats – there is nothing more pretty than Helensburgh when the weather is nice – shame it doesn’t happen very often! I cooked a bit […]

Last night I got home from Glasgow quite late. I was sitting in the lounge and suddenly a heard the most tremendous grunting and squealing coming from the back door. I dashed over, thinking that something was attacking the cats (or more likely that they were fighting with each other – again). I opened the […]

I’m a big fan of Badgers and also of the Scottish Badgers charity. They have been asked to publicize some talks about the rewilding of Scotland – another subject which is very dear to my heart. There are upcoming talks happening here: 5th April – Corran Halls, Oban 3rd May – Theatre Royal, Dumfries 24th […]

I don’t normally watch wildlife programmes. Not because I don’t like wildlife (I clearly do!) but because I find it so depressing in modern programs when they insist on keeping on mentioning how humanity is wiping out every creature on the globe. Doubtless this is true (and I for one would be glad if there […]

I am seriously not having a good week. Calor were supposed to be doing a delivery today but R has gone to London with the keys to our Land Rover in his pocket and left it parked where the lorry can’t get in so I have had to ring them to rearrange the delivery. While […]

I went to Glasgow yesterday to see John Cooper Clarke. I’ve been a fan of his for years and I was particularly looking forward to hearing his rendition of my favourite “I married a monster from outer space”. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. According to the website (City Halls) the show started […]

My friend J and I are in training for our Camino now (or at least he is when I can induce him to come out walking). On Friday we did one of my favourite walks. We went up behind the holiday village at Drimsynie, and climbed up to a Forestry road high on the hillside. […]

I watched a program on iPlayer last night about British takeaways (first episode about Fish and Chips). They have a number of challenges between rival shops, the final one of which is to devise a “new take” on what ever takeaway they are looking at. Here’s the thing – good Fish and Chips is good […]

Now along with the ongoing situation with the A83 which I have mentioned many times the council in their wisdom have decided to close one of our two roads to the village for four days. I understand that road maintenance has to happen – but here is the thing – it is not on trafficscotland.org […]