Flowers

June 23, 2025 sareenmclay

I grew up watching Beechgrove Garden and Gardeners’ World on the telly. The arrival of seed catalogues through the letterbox meant I could pour over stunning pictures of flowers, loving their colours, variety and beauty.

Only when I look back now do I realise how much of an impact these, and many other, influences from my childhood have shaped me.

I do love a flower!

Over the years I have continued to watch these long-running television programmes, admittedly not every week. Having suffered from migraines, I find the calm and beauty of them help me when I am at the stage of beginning to get going again.

During the summer I often sit down to watch and then think, I should be outside in the garden, not watching television! A few weeks ago, however, I ended up needing to recuperate from a bit of a fall and had the perfect excuse to sit down and watch the coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. My what an absolute treat!

*Brightly coloured flowers were much in evidence at RHS Chelsea.*

The knowledge, creativity, obvious joy and laughter on display were so inspiring. I learnt a huge amount and took copious notes – of course! The weather played its part and I was inspired to pot on the seedlings I have; teasels, sunflowers, zinnias, nasturtiums and sweet peas. A job I always put off as I never think I have enough patience to do but then, as ever, one that fully absorbs me and forces me to take my time. Every year I think I will grow flowers to bring in to the house but then I find it too hard to cut them; they look so beautiful where they are!

It does make me laugh though, there I am busy sowing seeds, potting on, watering and trying to nurture the plants when Nature has her own way of deciding exactly what she wants to do. When I was in the greenhouse I must have dropped some of the foxglove seeds I collected one year and the number of plants that have popped up through the stones is hilarious.

I am particularly proud of this poppy which, again, I probably dropped the seed and it has survived and flowered really well since last autumn in a pot in the corner of the greenhouse. It looks so happy there, I am just going to leave it.

I never thought ours would be a garden good enough for any flower show but listening to the experts at Chelsea, I do feel an extra sense of pride. The plants I have chosen have always been for wildlife, we have piles of stones and sticks, bee hotels, a butterfly house, a small pond and a water bath for the birds – with stones for the bees to land on. We began our back garden from a patch of grass, twelve years ago and now it looks so much more mature.

One of the first presents I was given for it was a bird feeding station. It has taken time to encourage the birds to come but the diversity of birds we have had this year has been fabulous. Woodpeckers, goldfinches, great tits and blue tits, blackbirds, dunnets, sparrows, doves, robins, wood pigeons, jackdaws and crows! Fantastic! There is an area which backs on to a woodland and that has been left as a ‘woodland’ garden where we even saw a large hedgehog one year. So along with my rather rag tag, ‘naturalistic’ planting, I have to laugh at myself, for once I am feeling right on trend in the gardening world!

But the greatest gift of all is the sharing. Going around the garden I can point out plants my parents, family and friends have given us. Watching the birds flitting in and around the feeders and listening to the hum of the giant bumblebees, I feel incredibly lucky. Gardening has been a gift for me in so many ways, much like the gift I was given when those catalogues came through the door all those years ago.

Like a book, I would find it incredibly difficult to choose a favourite when it comes to flowers. Is there a particular flower you love and why?

I Am Reading

The Flower Book, A Bloom for Every Day of the Year. Gardeners’ World

It would be lovely if you would like to pop over to www.mybookcorner.co.uk where you can read my reviews of the latest books for children. There is the opportunity to sign up for the newsletter there as well, providing you with great recommendations sent straight to your inbox.

Art · bees · fashion · Flowers · Inspiration · Nature

Fascinating Icons and Patterns

April 13, 2025April 13, 2025 sareenmclay

All my life I have been lucky enough to have access to the newspapers and their magazines. I am sure it is partly from these magazines that I discovered a world of fashion, music, art, beauty, photography, nature and culture really, that has fascinated and informed me over the years.

Visiting the 2022 Zandra Rhodes Exhibition.

One person from those magazines I often read about, was Zandra Rhodes. Of course it was her pink hair that caught my attention at first and I admit, I didn’t know much about her designs, but in 2022 an exhibition came to Aberdeen Art Gallery. It was a fabulously bright and colourful celebration of her fifty year career.

To then discover the (always a wonderful source of inspiration) Aberdeen Art Gallery, has an exhibition on at the moment, until the 13th of April on Textiles: Picasso to Warhol, well. I had to go. I was interested to learn that so many of the artists we still admire today, Matisse, Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall. Picasso and Warhol, designed textiles for the fashion industry.

Needless to say, I have been once, or twice, or so (!) to the exhibition. What a super piece of social history, and what’s more, the work of Zandra Rhodes was also featured.

This time, I was on the ball and managed to get tickets for my sister and I to go to the talk with curator Dennis Nothdruft and Zandra Rhodes. So, many, many years after sitting at home in a village on the West Coast of Scotland, reading about this innovative and inspiring woman, I finally got to meet her. What a powerhouse. It was an absolute treat.

Of course, it was World Book Day so I felt I had to buy her book, ‘Iconic’! Interestingly enough, to me, her dedication included her mum and her sister. My mum was a true inspiration to me, particularly when it came to creativity. She sewed, knitted and crocheted constantly, even making her own gorgeous wedding dress. Skills she handed on to all my siblings.

How blown away was I to then read the first chapter of ‘Iconic’. I’ll leave it to you to discover why.

I think it was a lucky combination for me; a dad who loved newspapers and a mum who loved textiles. Writing this I begin to see where I started on this path of loving so many differing types of creativity.

The textiles were so interesting partly because, pattern has always fascinated me. Ever since handwriting practice at school I think, and when I doodle, I return to these two. The first is like a relaxing, calming movement, the second I then fill in with a variety of dots and lines. Life has patterns too and I am always on the lookout for them.

So as the weather has warmed up this week and it is time to choose lighter, and perhaps brighter, clothes, I will be thinking about not only the dress designers but also those who have designed the textiles that will be chosen.

Nature of course has so many patterns and they have been proven to have a therapeutic effect, like gardening can!

I have been out in the garden doing a bit of tidying. Sowing teasel seeds although I am always a bit early and optimistic with seed sowing! Fingers crossed.

It has been a great time to watch wildlife and I have spotted huge bumblebees including a Tree bumblebee and a Garden bumblebee. Also, to my total excitement, goldfinches have arrived! Yay! After years of putting out niger seed with no luck, it is the sunflower hearts that has brought them in.

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and creative time.

Is there a doodle you always do?

I am watching

Icons of Style on BBC Scotland with Kirsty Wark.

I am reading

Iconic: My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects by Zandra Rhodes

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris

It would be lovely if you would like to pop over to www.mybookcorner.co.uk where you can read my reviews of books for children. There is the opportunity to sign up for the newsletter there as well, providing you with great recommendations sent straight to your inbox.

bees · Books · butterflies · Flowers · Garden · Happy · Holidays · Inspiration · Latin names · Nature · Photography · Seasons · wildlife · Writing

Gardens, Photography, Reading, Writing and Learning- of course!

October 29, 2024October 29, 2024 sareenmclayLeave a comment

I began this post in the summer. For some reason, I couldn’t get my head around what the thread of it was until I realised, that was the point. This is about meandering.

In gardens that have been specially designed, the aim seems to be to have a winding path. One to deliberately make you slow down and take your time. Along the way, there will be side shoots, leading you to ‘moments of interest’ in the garden. At the end of the path there may be an area that was at first hidden from sight.

I confess to not knowing much about garden design, despite the many I have visited! One designer I have read and heard mention of over the years is Gertrude Jekyll. On a visit to the Holy Island (Lindisfarne) on the North East Coast of England, I was delighted to learn there was a garden she had designed. Oh, how beautiful it is too! Filled with an abundance of summer blooms in a riot of colour, it was an absolute treat to see. Fragrant sweet peas and roses, poppies, daisies and flowering Lamb’s Ears (Stachys Byzantina)amidst others.

Garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll at Lindesfarne (Holy Island).

A long time ago I planted Lamb’s Ears in my garden after admiring them in the walled garden at Drum Castle: the leaves are so soft to touch. So it is with gardens, each one I visit inspires me to do something more with my own. Returning home with renewed determination to try sweet peas again, I think of how amazing their perfume is and how they are so pretty in a posy.

I am a meandering sort of a person, I think. The years have taught me that I do get there, slowly, following paths I choose, often without a clear idea of how it will all turn out but willing to give it a try. Perhaps my way is like the butterflies and moths I enjoy spotting, flitting from one stem to the next but with an overall sense of purpose.

Often I am inspired by others who have followed their own paths. Watching the documentary on the writer Joan Didion, reading about the photographer Imogen Cunningham and Kate Bradbury’s ‘The Bumblebee Flies Anyway’ have set the tone for my summer.

Always one to enjoy a learning opportunity, the talk by Annie Ives on identifying bumble bees for the Scottish Wildlife Trust was right up my street.

Writing this blog has given me the perfect opportunity to use some of the photos of the natural world around us that I love to take. This love of photography combined with writing meant I very much enjoyed running a ‘Scrawl and Crawl’ workshop with SCBWI‘s Karen McDonald at the wonderful Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery. I am hoping the exercises we did will get me writing!

As ever, the garden provides me with so many opportunities to take photos, it is hard to resist! Here are a selection of September moments. Sunshine, spiders and sunflowers, a white-tailed bee on the Sedum (Hylotelephium) and stunning white anemones.

To see the wild flowers amongst the apples this summer was a delight.

I wondered whether to post this or not, time has run away with me but today, as I swept up piles of leaves to let the grass breathe I thought, why not. Perhaps this is a summer/autumn round up.

Leaving the leaves (!) on the flower beds with the aim that they will break down as a natural mulch, I gathered a couple of bags full to hopefully create leaf mould. Making sure there were holes in the bags, I poured in some water from the rainwater butt and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Outside, in the October sunshine, I heard the honks, quacks and barks of pink-footed geese flying in a ‘v’ formation overhead. As I swept the leaves, a beautiful light green frog moved to hide in between the cracks in the wall. So that was the end of my clearing up. I left the rest for the frogs.

The Fuchsia are still going strong but are there any ‘froggy friends’ lurking underneath the beech leaves?

I am reading:

‘Haddo Reimagined‘ by Rae Cowie and Susan Orr this is a wonderful collaboration between writer and photographer.

Do you have a book recommendation which would be perfect for this time of year?

Birds · Flowers · Happy · Hope · Inspiration · Nature · Trees

Forest Fauna and Flora

July 8, 2024 sareenmclay

Sometimes you are lucky enough to find somewhere magical. Where you feel transported to a time and place of tranquility. In those moments, all else can, surely must be, forgotten to fully embrace the experience.

Black Spout waterfall and wood at Pitlochry is, for me, one such place. It left me filled with wonder and an amazing sense of peace. Perhaps it’s the lushness of the greenery this year. So much rain followed by days of sunshine.

To walk in the forest was to feel the softness of the paths underfoot. To listen to the birdsong: chaffinch, coal tit, grey and white wagtails was to smile at those wagging tails. To feel the soft, velvet of a hazel leaf and to admire tiny newly forming hazelnuts.

To my delight, there were oak trees of every size and shape. I thought of how their burls may be labelled as an ‘imperfection’, and yet their many layered beauty was undeniable. Useful too, they are often sought after by those who work with wood. No two burls are ever the same, with their layers and patterns. How wonderful that, in nature, we celebrate individuality.

There was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to hug a tree. To feel the smoothness of the moss on one side as opposed to the rivulet-like bark on the other. How amazing to consider its lifetime as I stand in silent awe.

It made me think of ‘birch tapping’ where the sap of the birch trees is collected to drink. I thought of all the water running through the tree. Of course, it could have been the water running over the Black Spout waterfall that made me think of this! An excellent viewing platform has been built and, if you carry on further up the path, you come to a beautiful section where there are large flat rocks above the waterfall.

When not hugging trees, I was using my phone to identify birdsong and plants. Wood avens, speedwell as well as cow parsley to name a few. What a complete distraction from everyday life. My visit to Black Spout wood, in such good company too, was a joy.

I am reading ‘Why Women Grow’ by Alice Vincent.

Big Butterfly Count begins on July 12th!

I do love a newsletter. Here are a few I’ve been reading:

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet Zine

People’s Friend and so exciting for me, they have bought two more of my stories!

Eleanor Mills – Queenager

Stuart White – Write Mentor

Podcast – Dacher Keltner The Thrilling New Science of Awe

Thank you for reading! Is there a place that is special to you or a newsletter you would recommend?

Birds · Flowers · Inspiration · Lighthouses · Nature

A tale of lighthouses, swimming and wildlife.

May 4, 2024May 6, 2024 sareenmclay

A lighthouse, yay! On a spring day filled with bright sunshine, blue skies and a breeze that could bite the ears off you, we walked the short distance from the small Fife town of Elie to the Elie Ness Lighthouse.

After another bout of covid, and our planned holiday abandoned, it was the perfect way to enjoy some fresh air and (a little bit!) of exercise.

Built on what used to be known as ‘Fish Rock’ in 1908, the engineer was David Alan Stevenson, cousin of the author, Robert Louis Stevenson. The lighthouse was deemed to be necessary as in bad weather sailors couldn’t see the lights on the Isle of May or Inchkeith.

Crossing the small bridge, I felt as if I was approaching a castle. The tide was out and the black rocks surrounding the lighthouse were smooth: Elie Ness being one of at least a hundred extinct volcanic vents in East Fife.

Of course I took the time to check out the wildflowers: Sea Thrift and Scurvy Grass, the latter being a new discovery on my ‘Seek’ App.

A heron set off on its majestic flight and a skylark’s song accompanied us (thanks to the Merlin Bird App!) as we followed the grassy path along to Lady Janet’s Tower.

Now there’s a story.

This puts wild swimming in a whole new light!

Apparently, Lady Janet Anstruther’s father (or husband) had a changing room built in 1770, on the beach so she could go swimming/skinny dipping at Ruby Bay. Whilst she was in the water, a servant rang a bell in the town so no-one would go near and when she had finished, she had the tower to ‘relax’ in afterwards.

Now that might tempt me to go wild swimming – the prospect of having a cosy room with a fire to thaw out in after an icy dip!

Lady Janet’s Changing Room

Walking back along the beach, we searched for Elie Rubies (pyrope garnets), didn’t find any but it was worth a try!

Buoyed by our visit to Elie Ness, we travelled along the coast to pop into Pittenweem (lovely wool shop!), Anstruther and Crail.

As it was such a beautiful evening, we sat outside to enjoy fish and chips in Anstruther with a superb view of the lighthouse and enjoyed walking the harbour wall at Crail.

What a time to travel around Scotland! Laden boughs of pink cherry blossoms, magnolia trees with their white or pink flower cups, tulips of every colour looking so perfect as to appear almost unreal. The cheery yellow of the gorse in the hedgerows and the sunshine patchwork of oilseed rape in the fields. Lambs sunbathing. What a beautiful country.

And finally, isn’t there always a last word? Well, it has to go to this yarn bombed postbox in Elie. Couldn’t resist popping a postcard in.

I am reading (and loving!) ‘Corvus’ by Esther Woolfson – might have popped into Toppings fabulous bookshop in St Andrews!

I recently visited the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery and would highly recommend it, so thought provoking and inspiring.

Have also been inspired by my daughter, Katie’s fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust as she trains to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in August.

Books · Inspiration · Knitting · Lighthouses · Seasons

Flashes of Light and Inspiration

November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 sareenmclay

It seems appropriate to be talking about light at this time of year, especially since the clocks have been turned back and, well, it has often been pretty dark and stormy.

This summer I was able to fulfil a wish I’d had for a long time, to visit the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh with family and friends.

I’ve long been fascinated by lighthouses, possibly as far back as when I was in primary school. I remember reading the story of the three lighthouse keepers who disappeared mysteriously from the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in December 1900. Years later I discovered there had been a poem written about the incident by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Flannan Isle.

I realise I am not alone in loving this link between poetry and lighthouses, after all, the author and poet Robert Louis Stevenson was a member of the famous Stevenson family who designed many of the lighthouses around our coasts. (There is a super book about this by Bella Bathurst, ‘The Lighthouse Stevensons’.)

The museum is housed beside the Kinnaird Head Castle lighthouse. It’s built right through the middle of a castle that is more than 450 years old. What a fabulous example of finding a new use for a building!

While at the museum we couldn’t help noticing these wonderful knitted yarn bombs and I loved the Bell Rock Flags, hand-embroidered altar cloths made by Jane Stevenson in 1820.

For a very calming moment, here’s a lovely video of lighthouses at night, I promise you, you’ll end up watching it more than once.

This is Book Week Scotland – here’s a couple of quick fun things to do!

Add your choice of book to their Book Week Scotland Map.

Fill in the quick quiz to find out how adventurous you are before reading the wonderful stories about adventure in the Book Week Scotland book.

When the sun is shining and the light is filtering through the trees, it’s a joy to walk through a forest filled with the beauty of autumn’s stunning colours.

Now, does this not just make you want to hug a tree!

If you’re feeling the cold, here’s a link to a post I did on Winter Warmers!

Recommend: Stargazing by Peter Hill

I am reading:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safon, it’s been on the tbr pile for a while!

DO/ HOPE/ Why you should never give up. Gail Muller

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