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
-
Midsummer Melody at Pond Cottage
Make a date – two dates – in August for food and music at Pond Cottage. You are warmly invited to help us celebrate and support CHAS (Children’s Hospices across Scotland) in their £20 million campaign to develop their vital services for families. We are delighted that talented local musician Ola Stanton will be with…
-
Debs gets on her bike for charity
Debs Reid cycled through the trees and dismounted by our cottage gate in bright sunshine. She looked remarkably cool for a woman on the latest lap of a 541 kilometre cycle trip from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Smiling happily, she removed her helmet. “That’s quite a steep run from Bridge of Earn isn’t it?”
-
Sights for sore eyes – and hearts
Before breakfast, I’m standing by the window, trying not to think about the news, wondering about the day ahead. And then suddenly there’s Mr and Mrs Bullfinch feasting in the Geranium phaeum. The black flowers (dark red really) are now positively flaunting their seeds. Mrs Bullfinch has a gravity defying upside down hold on a…
-
Jurassic glade is a cool but tricky spot
It’s exciting to touch leaves that first evolved so unimaginably long ago. It was a very green world – easy to imagine in our corner of Scotland, but we must plant with care.
-
Meet the human boss – knows you better than AI
He stops to share a joke, pass the time of day or congratulate the woman who has solved a problem at the packaging machine
-
Let’s ring the bells of springtime
Pause for a moment. I started writing this a few weeks ago and the wider world has become even more turbulent. I know there are places where the sky threatens a more deadly deluge than rain. Yet…I go in search of springtime magic and spend most of the walk looking down. The sky is grey, gloomy…
-
Stories of Glasgow, warmly embraced by the Wall of Death
What are the missing stories of Glasgow? We met in The Revelator to find out.
-
Living and learning with swans
We are co-dependents, if you like. We don’t just want these beautiful birds to survive, we need them to. Symbols of nature’s resilience. Besides, the parents have shown imaginative skills of their own.
-
Jack Frost welcomes proper winter to Pond Cottage
He’s at it again. That Jack Frost has turned another cold night into a glittery masterpiece on the bedroom window.
-
Solstice sunrise, salute the turning of the year
I have my moments of despair, the doomster feeling that we’ve cooked ourselves a new dark ages. Yet, the sun is shining. After dreary days of relentless rain that alone would be worth getting out of bed for but there’s an extra pleasure in the knowledge that this marks a turning point in the year.…
-
Gathering seeds of hope – on a train trip from Scotland to France
The ugly dark hulk has a daunting bulk. A grim legacy of the Nazi occupation. The old submarine base still occupies the Bacalan district of Bordeaux. So many tons of concrete – 600,000 cubic metres of them – would be difficult to remove. But walk round it and there’s a surprising softening in an imaginative…
-
Pond Cottage nature notes – making a happy mess.
Too hot to do the outside work I had planned. I stay indoors with windows open to invite a cooling breeze while I tweak at words for next year’s Pond Cottage entry in Scotland’s Gardens Scheme 2026 Yellow Book. Is it right?