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 →
. Bonjour, Marie-Agnès, Jean-Claude et Janice! Ca va? – How are you today? 🙂 . I wonder whether our readers have guessed that, as well as sending these occasional Letters from Scotland, Margaret and I correspond regularly with you by email? We write in English, Marie-Agnès and Jean-Claude in French, and Janice often alternates between the two languages. I enjoy … Continue reading →
… Hi Mairiuna! While checking my agenda this morning, I noticed a scribble indicating that today was Sir Walter Scott’s birthday! I said to myself that we could not let this day go by without honouring our favorite scottish writer . To celebrate his priceless legacy which had such a great impact on historical fiction and upon so many worldwide … Continue reading →
Hi everybody ! We’ve taken this photo at a crossroads on arriving at Aubigny-sur-Nère. Isn’t the bagpipe looking like some big greedy insect ready to plunge into the flowers to gather its lot of pollen! We’ve already introduced ‘Aubigny-sur-Nère‘ on Scotiana. Together with a vast area around the town, including Concressault and Oizon, it remained Scottish … Continue reading →
As revealed in Mairiuna’s post “Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border Rediscovered “, I am now quite pleased to introduce you to a series of articles about Sir Walter Scott’s cherished friends, be them on two legs or four. 😉 As you will surely agree with me, this is a very daunting project to undertake because Sir … Continue reading →
Hi everybody, Holiday time and time reading too 😉 We’d like to wish you a very good summer, whether you go on holiday or not. Why not take advantage of this leisure time to read this or that old volume by one of your favourite authors that has been waiting for you since ages in a dark corner of … Continue reading →
In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time:the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream. (Thomas Carlyle) Hi everybody, Day after day, we’re adding colourful pieces to our great Scottish mosaic and when we aren’t roaming the beautiful roads of Scotland we … Continue reading →
. Blooming rhododendrons at the entrance of Hoddom Castle, in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland © 2006 Scotiana Just try to imagine what it can be to get asleep and wake up in the shade of an old castle, to be immersed in the silent atmosphere of such a place when the only sounds around are the murmur of the wind … Continue reading →
Hi everybody ! In a recent post about golf, I’ve mentioned Hoddom Castle for its quiet and beautiful golf links, promising to tell you more about the castle itself in another post. Standing as it is, amidst a vast wooded estate which has been partly converted into a first class caravan park and campsite, the castle is well worth … Continue reading →
One of George Mackay Brown’s favourite words was marvellous. He used it about the weather, his friends, music, the Dounby Show, the landscape, and about his penn’orth of sweeties and The Hotspur comic for boys. He thought it an intense word, shorthand for the kind of state described by poets such as Dylan Thomas, Muir and Wordsworth. So here we … Continue reading →
Bonjour! Hello again Janice, Marie-Agnès and Jean-Claude! 🙂 Our tenth “Letter from Scotland” already! We often look again at the series of articles you posted last year on the Auld Alliance, especially the description of your visit to the magical Stuart castle, the Château de la Verrerie. (Close to Aubigny-sur-Nère, an Enchanted Stuart Castle : ‘Le Château de la Verrerie’). … Continue reading →
