Candles have been a source of both comfort and inspiration in these recent days. Small flickering beacons of warmth, amongst a period of my life that has been hard to navigate. Hard but able, I’ve found myself working systematically through my days. Ticking things off lists. Doing what needs done. Yet also… finding magic. Magic lives
The month of October saw me striding for miles and miles across Scotland. 100 miles in total in fact. Steps taken in Fife and in Dundee, Dunfermline and Dumfries and Galloway. Solo and with my family and friends. The miles travelled, were to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s Research UK. A charity close to my heart. Nearly
(My) ‘Old Man of the Sea’ Part of a greater body of work I am on the cusp of… with writings unfolding, and words intertwined. Sea spray and weather worn, like the rocks tumbled in the oceans. Softened and storm sculpted. My dad has spoken to me… in riddle and in clarity… these last months. So grateful
“Onwards to pass home. Stopping as skylarks spotted. Rising from field. A flitter of wing, whirring in vertical lift. As they do… then song ascending.” My Aberdeenshire, Tifty childhood home, surrounded by arable landscape. Farmland fields, with crops in rotation. Ground nesting birds. Stubble fields upon harvest. Grasses blown in breeze. The soft “shush” as the wind passed through
Best friends for me, are for life. I’ve one best friend who has pretty much been in my life FOREVER. From primary 3 all the way through… and still now. Bike rides, playing on hay bales, building dams in streams… to barn dances and road trips… holidays and daft funny drunken nights… Through all of it. One of the
The day my daughter finished primary school, we got ready as normal. Ate breakfast, and with radio playing, just as we were away to leave the house, a song came on. When I Grow Up, from the musical Matilda. As a wee one, my eldest watched Matilda on repeat. Transfixed by the story. The characters. The warmth of