The grey heron is back. I have been watching and waiting for him, and finally I’ve been rewarded. Last year he was a fixture on Dunsapie Loch, on the east side of Arthur’s Seat. There he would stalk, or wade, or stand frozen in position like some sort of prehistoric decoy. This year he favours … Continue reading Passing Through
My sister and I have the same speaking voice. Believe me. I can only hear it when I listen to a recording of myself, and when I do, it is her voice I hear (and vice versa, she says). She once had a phone conversation with my husband, and they were three or four minutes … Continue reading Morph
Austerity: it was the word of the last decade, wasn’t it? Carried over from the decade before, from the infamous crash of 2007 when we (or someone on our behalf) over-stretched and over-spent until under we went. And after that, I only ever thought of the word ‘austerity’ in terms of fiscal policy; I associated … Continue reading An Austerity of Closeness
E.’s in a shed and M.’s in her bed and A. has put her makeup on especially for it. There is no money exchanged, no offers of, ‘do you want half of my scone?’ and there’s certainly no overhearing what the couple at the next table are talking about. Because at the virtual tea shop, … Continue reading Virtual Tea Room
Rear Window – have you seen it? It’s a Hitchcock classic; a masterful take on one man’s social isolation whilst living, incapacitated, in a bustling Lower Manhattan apartment block in the 1950s. As social distancing and self-isolation sweeps the world, I thought I’d revisit it. If you’re short of something to watch during these quiet … Continue reading Rear Window
Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist (annoying all-rounder), wrote – at a sprightly 81 years old – a famous article entitled, “How to Grow Old”. He himself was to grow much older, but he can’t have known, when he was writing it, that he would live to the ripe old age of 97. On … Continue reading Life Is a River
I passed a man on the street this morning walking towards me with a cardboard box over his head. It was a huge one. I can only guess at what it once contained – a microwave oven or a shipment of bananas or a consignment of flat pack garden furniture – but this morning, as … Continue reading There Are Worse Things
Everyone wants to be needed. It’s the most natural thing in the world. Each of us have needs to be met, and most of us feel rewarded by a sense of achievement, validation, or plain old love when we look after the needs of others. So, how is it, by and large, that we cannot … Continue reading I Need You
Problem pages, Which? magazine subscriptions, best-of lists, tried and tested columns, other people’s life hacks: one can’t get out of bed for the constant flow of near dam-bursting advice that is washing at us from every corner. In a day an age when we are overwhelmed with choice it’s enormously tempting to stop thinking for … Continue reading Take My Advice
‘Is that so? You’re great for getting up and on the road so early, that’s still the middle of the night for me. Dark until Moffat, you say? That surprises me, either you were driving fast, or the sunrise is later than I thought it was. Yes, that’s true, I suppose it is only the … Continue reading Conversation at Breakfast
