The Tiree Pages this year’s CalMac adventure to the island of Tiree The countdown to this year’s Big Summer Holiday has been a long one. As soon as we left Islay last summer, the discussions began about which Hebridean island to visit next, how big the ferry would be, would we get to eat breakfast […]
Treasures this one is for the collectors We pick up treasures, me and the kids. We stuff them in our pockets (to be found days or seasons later), or carry them in soft palms, flipping them over and over. “Can you carry this for me, mum?” the kids say, and I almost always do (except
Dawn Chorus (I blame the great tit) a short story by Hannah Longmuir We’ve been in this house seven springs, now. And in seven springs I have intended to, and failed to, slip out into the woods, in May, while the rest of the household sleeps, to hear the dawn chorus in full voice. Small
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Midwinter Pages from advent through to my birthday in the middle of January January is gathering pace, is she not? We’re over half-way; I’m enjoying the cold, blank energy. (Clean) slate grey skies, deep lungfuls of cold air, freezing drizzle clogging up my eyelashes. I think that with each passing year I am becoming a
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The November Pages: drawing trees and owls things I saw, drew and thought about this month My November sketchbook pages are dominated by sketches of trees, Drygrange trees. And birds. Trees and birds, my two favourite subjects. Things change fast in November – at the start it is sunshine through glowy-orange leaves, by the end
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A Love Affair with Drygrange (Lauren’s Photos) I’m in a relationship with woods and moss and dappled sunlight I fell in love with Drygrange the first time I visited. It was a sunny day in May. We had just started house-hunting – in fact, this was the first (and only) house we viewed. We were
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The October Pages: For Moths and Goths things I saw, drew and thought about this month October is the most magical month of the year – I shall hear no arguments about that nor a word said against it. Earlier in the year, I was blown away by January and her glorious late sunrises and
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The September Pages (2025) things I saw, drew and thought about this month Anyone who has been reading my journal posts, or who knows me in real life, knows that I am a nerd for autumn. It does something invigorating to me, sets my senses to alert, my fluffy fox ears point up and I
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The Best Summer of my Life (A Distant Memory) the rest of my pages & notes from the summer. It feels so long ago already! The term-time routine takes over so quickly. This summer it all came together for us: the age & stage the kids are at (they were good friends! and they are
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The Islay Trip (summer holidays part 2) pages & notes from our wonderful family holiday to the island of Islay this summer I swear that, at one point in the past, my ancestors were island people, boat people, people of wind and salt and far off horizons. I seem to reach peak-peace on the top
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