This latest interview in my series about creative and inspiring people living in Dumfries and Galloway, is someone I have never met. Indeed, when I contacted him earlier this year, he informed me that he was about to leave his home region and relocate to Orkney. So I’m looking forward to meeting with him inContinue reading “What’s in a place-name? An interview with Colin Mackenzie”
Category Archives: Landscape
The Hare, the Heron and the Professor: a story for ‘children of all ages’
Late one Spring evening, with the sun’s rays slanting low in the sky, the Professor took a walk around his garden. He paused for a moment to admire the view to the hills beyond. Then something in the grass caught his eye. Lying next to a stone that had been warmed in the sunshine wasContinue reading “The Hare, the Heron and the Professor: a story for ‘children of all ages’”
Hazel Campbell: at the stroke of a brush
The year was 2010. Heading to our favourite cafe/gallery in Castle Douglas one gloomy Saturday, we paused at the front window. A large watercolour painting was mounted on an easel and seemed to be lighting up the whole High Street. Electric blues and vibrant greens shone out around a quirky white cottage. In the foreground,Continue reading “Hazel Campbell: at the stroke of a brush”
Circles of trees: an ‘arboretum’ in the making
The idea of the arboretum came about in 2015, when I had the opportunity to take a long lease on the field adjacent to my home in Dumfriesshire. Having secured the arrangement, I began to ponder how to proceed. Almost two hectares in extent, the field had been set-aside for years as rough pasture. LongContinue reading “Circles of trees: an ‘arboretum’ in the making”
Science and sustainability: Dr Emily Taylor
In the early Summer of 2009 I was preparing a move from Lancaster University to take up the position of Head of Campus for the University of Glasgow in Dumfries. I was fulfilling a long held ambition to make Dumfries and Galloway my home, after years of spending time here in the holidays and atContinue reading “Science and sustainability: Dr Emily Taylor”
Emma Dove: through the lens and beyond
Film maker, photographer and arts curator, Emma Dove, talks about her work and her attachment to place.
Introducing a journal of April 2020
An intermittent diarist throughout most of my life, I began keeping a journal from the start of the March 2020 Coronavirus lockdown. Like many others, I sensed the important intersection that was about to take place between what the American sociologist C Wright Mills called ‘private troubles and public issues’. I maintained my journal untilContinue reading “Introducing a journal of April 2020”
Down where the drumlins roll
In the early summer of 1969 and as soon as the dust had settled on my O level exams, I hitch-hiked out from my home in North Yorkshire and headed for Galloway. Unlike Richard Hannay, the fugitive hero of John Buchan’s Thirty-Nine Steps, I was not using this corner of south west Scotland to hide from pursuers,Continue reading “Down where the drumlins roll”
Perception’s gaze- Dr David Borthwick
I know Dave Borthwick almost entirely in a professional capacity. I have never shared a meal with him or even a coffee, other than in a meeting of some kind. Most of our conversations, warm and mutually respectful in character, have been rather brief, scattered among the ‘quotidian duties’ of the workplace. We first metContinue reading “Perception’s gaze- Dr David Borthwick”
Quotidian 