Hi and welcome back ! While chatting with my dear friend Mairiuna about stamp collecting, a topic we love to share upon as we are both fans of those miniature work of art, she mentioned George Mackay Brown’s interest in collecting stamps. By all means! Having travelled through many of his books I was surprised that I never got hinted … Continue reading →
How am I to sing your praise, Happy chimney-corner days, Sitting safe in nursery nooks, Reading picture story-books? (Robert Louis Stevenson – From A Child’s Garden of Verses) I could not have found more charming lines to introduce my new selection of books for Christmas than the above verses written by Robert Louis Stevenson in his lovely poem “Picture Books … Continue reading →
Dear readers, Today, in our quest of the best of Scotland, I invite you to discover the Orkney Islands, one of our favourite Scottish places. There is something magical in these islands of the North, something different than in mainland Scotland. In sharing our pictures with you I’ll try to give you an idea of the beauty of the … Continue reading →
Source : Le coffre aux images de Kate As Father Christmas is already driving his heavily loaded reindeer-drawn sleigh across the icy territories of his faraway country I’m very busy preparing the festivities of the end of the Year, dreaming of a vivifying walk in the countryside or a good book to read by the fireside… Source : Le … Continue reading →
A light that has once shone is never quenched. Can a diamond wither? (George Mackay Brown – Magnus) Hi everybody ! How the martyrdom of earl Magnus and the miracles who followed his death led to the building of St Magnus cathedral in Kirkwall, that is what we’re going to learn today in the last seven paintings of … Continue reading →
Almost before you are aware of it the summer is over, we are in September, the autumn equinox is hard upon us, and we go wheeling down into the storms, the snow, the darkness of winter. It was all over too soon, the season of peaches (I never ate so many – this summer they were delicious), herrings, new potatoes, … 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 →
Day after day, in our quest of Scotland, we go deeper and deeper into that fascinating country and like hungry pilgrims on a never ending path we discover new horizons at each turn. So, let us walk on, listening on the road to what people say and write there… If you could see my library, you couldn’t believe it. Since … Continue reading →
“The strange human craving for the pleasure of feeling afraid….” (Virginia Woolf – The Common Reader) We’re not of the kind to discriminate against anybody, so let us share our readings with this old guy relaxing in his armchair, or… is it a “she” ? This venerable person must have a lot of thrilling stories to tell us … Indeed, … Continue reading →
