It was either Elsa or Anna (I should know which) who implored us to, ‘Let it go’, as she belted her message out, Disney style. And why not take advice from a cartoon character when the conventional leadership and global governance of the day plays out like a poorly scripted soap opera? We may take … Continue reading The Year Is Going, Let Him Go
In Edinburgh, we have gained 50 seconds more light today compared with yesterday. Tomorrow, a further 58 seconds will be added to the bag, over a minute the following day, and by New Year’s Eve we’ll have a whole six minutes more of daylight than we had on the shortest day a week ago. Not … Continue reading Tender Is The Night
It’s oft quoted, and it sounds like it might be from the Bible, or from Shakespeare, but the attribution for recording to print that 'the darkest hour is just before the dawn' falls to the English theologian and historian, Thomas Fuller. He wrote it in 1650, in language that is somewhat more archaic than what … Continue reading The Darkest Hour
In both the religious and the secular world, November is the month of remembering the dead: the ordinary dead, the glorious dead, the forgotten dead. Remembrance Sunday fell this month and people are still wearing their poppies (a smattering of white now joining the red). They are probably worn for different reasons: to respectfully call … Continue reading Past Glories
I love a bubble. I love it in the form of fizz in a glass – whether it follows the pop of a champagne cork or the hiss of a can being opened on a summer’s day. I love it in a steaming bath where I can sink and disappear into fragrant fluffs of bubbly … Continue reading Bubbles
We’ve peaked. We’re sliding towards bare branches, denuded winter trees, skeletal frames that you’ll soon believe will never have leaves again. Yes, the intensity of autumn’s colour blast looks like it’s been run through too hot a wash; its vibrancy has been siphoned off, insipid now, like an 18thCentury patient drooping from bloodletting. I walked … Continue reading Trees Please
Years ago I had two short-lived spells of being around horses. Both were at the same stables, high above my hometown on the Corbally Road, a name that I now think of as aptly onomatopoeic; it sounds like something you might say to a horse instead of ‘giddy up’ – ‘cor-bally!’ Sisters, B. and S., … Continue reading Kelpies
There are times writing, when I remember a story someone has told me because it fits whatever convoluted point I’m trying to make. Often I go right ahead and recount it – a stich here, some beading there, a nip, a tuck, a little glue and glitter. Occasionally I stop and think: this is not … Continue reading Tell Stories
‘The old dog for the long road.’ D. taught me that one when I was much younger, when I had more give in my knees. Back then I got the gist of it, though I can't say I fully grasped its depth of meaning. It is one of those sayings to which you nod when … Continue reading Be Still And Wait
My visitors are here. Flew in from Canada early yesterday morning. Very early for me, as I got to see the lark-side of this city: wide-awake, bustling, industrious. The sight of if would have made Edinburgh’s enlightened forefathers proud. “How are you feeling?” I asked between hugs on Waverley Bridge. “Fine!” came the universal response, … Continue reading Lashing, Splashing, Dashing
