Dear readers, We have wonderful memories of our trips in the Outer Hebrides in 2003, 2004 and 2006 which led us from Lewis in the north to Barra and Vatersay in the south. We’re eager to go back there to immerse in the wild and colourful ‘lunar’ landscapes we’ve passed through, to get in closer touch with the … Continue reading →
Hi Mairiuna! From all the marvelous paths one can travel while exploring the Scottish walking trails, one that I would be delighted to experiment is the Ayrshire Coastal path as illustrated in the map above. Just imagine how exciting it is to see seals, porpoise and perhaps even otters! Wow… We did drive through some of the gorgeous cities along … Continue reading →
Hi everybody, Hi Janice ! Do you remember the day we spent in Alloway, the native village of Robert Burns? Quite an unforgettable day indeed but sadly enough it was the last but one day of our 2012 trip around Scotland… We arrived in Alloway at about midday on 30 September. The weather could have been worse but … Continue reading →
Today is a date not to be missed on the calendar for it is the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, the great national bard of Scotland whose poems are known and sung all over the world… so let us celebrate him with our Scottish friends to whom we wish a very very happy Burns Night !!! … Continue reading →
.. Mairiuna, I just stumbled upon an article in the Scotsman online magazine that compiles a list of top Scottish authors’ favourite books for the year 2012. In all, 44 authors contributed to this project. Wow… Ain’t it exciting to find out what our best authors reads are? So happy to find on the list Christopher Brookmyre, Alistair Moffat, Alexander McCall Smith … Continue reading →
To discover literary Edinburgh, you have to walk it, defying Robert Louis Stevenson’s “bleak winds” and exploring Dorothy Wordsworth’s “passes of dark stone”, simply because there is no other way of penetrating the ancient wynds, closes and creeper-ridden burial grounds of this city, whose literary past is written on its dark and hoary face. (Allan Foster – The … Continue reading →
Hi Mairiuna! It was truly a pleasure to read your last post triggered by Google Doodle’s commemoration of the 220th birth anniversary of Gioachino Rossini. The music was such a joy to hear! Thanks for sharing such great insights about Rossini and the nature of his link with Scotland. About your challenging question… 😉 Dear Janice would you, by any … Continue reading →
These nice google images which regularly celebrate great men or women, be they writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, economists, politicians, humanitarians, always trigger my curiosity and I often click on them to know what man or woman is hiding behind… On Tuesday, 7 February 2012, when I clicked on the Victorian style image you can see above, I discovered it … Continue reading →
Joyeux Noël à tous !!! Santa Claus will very soon be at our doorstep or should I say up on the roof, ready to drop precious little presents into our chimney, ‘wee surprises’ as Iain and Margaret would say ;-). Why not read or re-read some good Scottish Christmas stories while waiting for him? 😉 Storytelling has always … Continue reading →
Hi everybody, We don’t live in Edinburgh and, as the number of our visits there happen to be rather limited, our vision of this fascinating city owes much to our readings, each of them adding its little touch to the sense of place we got there and making us still more eager to go back to the beautiful Scottish … Continue reading →
Hi Mairiuna! First, let me tell you that I absolutely fell in love with Arnold Lobel’s illustration “Books to the Ceiling” that we can see inside your post: “First Steps in Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street… Very original rendering of a house full of books! As we are both great book lovers, no wonder this charming illustration depicting a … Continue reading →
Books to the ceiling, books to the sky. My piles of books are a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! (Arnold Lobel – Whiskers & Rhyme) Hi everybody! The little corner of my library devoted to Alexander McCall Smith’s books is beginning to become crowded. As I’ve mentioned in my last post, … Continue reading →
Hi everybody! With autumn already touching our gardens and woods with its warm colours, it may seem a little late to write a page about “summer reading” but isn’t it a good idea to make summer last a little longer. Indeed, the Indian Summer is still to come, isn’t it Janice? But before embarking on our ”summer … Continue reading →
‘Books!’ says Tuppence in Agatha Christie’s Postern of Fate (Chapter 1: ‘Mainly Concerning Books’) “Is there anything I can take down for you?” “Well, I wish you would”, said Tuppence. “I’m falling off those chairs. Some of their legs are very wobbly, some of them rather slippery.” ”Any book in particular?” ”Well, I haven’t got on very far … Continue reading →
I would like to begin this post with a few words about Lettres de Gourgounel (1979), one of the first books written by Kenneth White (his first book of prose) and also the first book I‘ve read by this author. The title of the original English edition is Letters from Gourgounel (1966) but it has been out of print for … Continue reading →
