When the Sea is Calling

| November 25, 2020
When the sea is calling I was brought up falling asleep to the sound of waves gently breaking on the shore. The guttural hum of bleating sheep. The sweet scent of grass and peat. Tired, cold feet hardened from days of running bare foot through the Machair and across the sands. City shoes long discarded. [...]

The Persabus Department Store

| November 5, 2020
Whoever thought it would take soooo long? These past few weeks when the Happy Farmer has enquired why I am running round like a headless chicken, in between spending hours googly eyed in front of a computer screen, my response has been ‘Well, I’m opening a department store!’ He simply smiles and hands me more [...]

Off With Her Head

| July 22, 2020
Sometimes, don’t you just want to hide away? Emerging from the depths of ‘lockdown’ has been a reawakening. From all the ‘behind the scenes’ preparations, from the risk assessments followed by the deep cleans. From the de-cluttering, to the planning and the implementing. The restructuring and looking at ways of moving steadily forwards into the [...]

Bunnahabhain

| March 2, 2020
It has been bitterly cold, but with the Paps of Jura covered in their snow coats, and huge blue skies with billowing clouds dancing across them, in between the hailstorms, it has been spectacularly beautiful. A walk out across the headland at Bunnahabhain. Deer darting across our path, and eagles swooping overhead, with the deep [...]

Autumn in the Pottery

| November 5, 2019
With cold, crisp mornings and the first signs of frost in the ground, the wood burning stove has been roaring back to life in the pottery studio. The Happy Farmer heads over each morning after the feeding rounds to get the fire burning and top up supplies of coal and logs, ensuring the workshop is [...]

Islay Blog: Old Sandy Wilson

| February 5, 2019
A huge winter sun has been beaming in the sky over the past week. A snowy landscape. The most colourful of sunrises. Such a welcome start to each day. Then at sunset, pink and purple hues tinge the hills as the sun fades away into the winter skies. Dusk quickly gives way to darkness and [...]

The Persabus Nativity

| December 21, 2018
Persabus is rocking and rolling with Christmas just around the corner. With youngest home for the festivities the baking has been flowing. Oranges, lemons and limes have been sliced, studded with cloves and dried in the Aga. We have been out collecting foliage for the mantle pieces and table decorations. The last of the pottery [...]

The Summer House Lodgings

| September 18, 2018
The lovely landscape and environment of Persabus feed the creative spirit. Years of bracing walks in the autumn, and winter months, when the colours on the island are at their most vibrant, led to dabbling with paints at the kitchen table, which evolved into watercolour paintings, and then to my designs being hand painted, glazed [...]

And all it took was a tractor, trailer, horse box and a few Calmac containers….

| September 12, 2018
The Persabus Hebridean broadcasting blog is back on the airwaves. It was a rocky one. Away on the mainland we hit technical glitches in internet land. Happily though we managed to accompany youngest as she headed for the bright lights of university living. We followed in her wake with tractor, trailer and horse box, and [...]