No Surrender

It was impossible to talk; the massed ranks of flutes and drums had rendered conversation obsolete. They were marching now through the city centre and the canyon of multi storey office buildings echoed with the booming cannon shots of bass drums and the massed singing of drunk men. The air shrilled with flutes and the … Continue reading No Surrender →

West Highland Way

Life force: (noun) ‘the spirit which animates living creatures; the soul.’ It’s a powerful thing this life-force; a term we’ve adopted to compensate for that bridge between the rational-scientific and the spiritual, because there is undeniably something other than mere existence that drives us forward. That beyond the biological mechanics, chemistry and physics that make … Continue reading West Highland Way →

Lockerbie

They could all see it, the grey flesh luminous with decay, in stark contrast to the dark earth beneath. Alec composed himself and let his breath out slowly, the vapour forming a thick column past his eyes as he crouched lower, thighs burning with the effort of holding still. With a gloved hand he teased … Continue reading Lockerbie →

Brief Encounter

The following five days were spent in bed. Alec had swallowed the contents of the canal during the rescue of the boy and a bout of gastroenteritis followed. It took another week before he could reasonably claim he’d recovered and it was a thinner Alec MacKay who reported at Corsair Street in time to begin … Continue reading Brief Encounter →

Doubts and Procrastination

So I’m home. Back to the old routine. The girls are off to school, the eldest having stomped off in tears because a school concert to be given in honour of the departing head mistress (newly announced) falls on the date of a planned trip to New York. First world problems... That old enemy, procrastination, … Continue reading Doubts and Procrastination →

Moniack Mhor

A year to the day since I was last here, I am back. In the little cottage. Same room. Same view. Same feeling of peace. Just under two hundred miles from Glasgow, but a million miles from the perpetual motion of city life and the the gravitational pull of family. No longer an atom flying … Continue reading Moniack Mhor →

Light

A walk home from a night out with old friends always puts you in a reflective mood. Maybe you open up to the world a little. Beer helps. That said, a smartphone camera lens is a poor way to capture a night time scene, but hopefully this gives some sense of the unusual. I am … Continue reading Light →

Musical Serenity

I came across this rare footage of David Gilmour playing an old Richard Thomson song some months back. The Dimming Of The Day. Beautiful version of a wonderful song 🙂 https://youtu.be/EK2N3S0lr4c

Tiree

A return to an island I first visited a year ago. The half marathon I'll be running is just an excuse to go there, if such an excuse were really needed. A beautiful place renowned for its coastline and beaches more than anything else. It is remote and if you stand at its western most … Continue reading Tiree →