On the north side of the Solway Firth you can see many a statue of Robert the Bruce. On the south side King Edward Longshanks stares back across the water. It wasn't just the Scots that Edward disliked, mind. On 18 July 1290 he issued an order expelling all of England's 16,000 Jews.

Wicker Man & friends, Kirkcudbrightshire

1 Just had one of those special moments. Every morning I put sunflower seeds out for the wild birds, & it's all gone by dinner time. Just now I heard chirping, looked out & there were 2 sparrows - a mother & chick - sitting on the window ledge, both looking at me.

Kirkcowan churchyard on a warm afternoon. Taken while eating pizza. It's a village so pretty and peaceful I think I might go & live there.

That's better! Those self-seeded poppies in my garden. Where did they come from?

Just discovered I'm no longer able to hear dippers calling to each other. Somebody send chocolate to cheer me up, please.

Announced today. A £75 million UK campaign to persuade the public to use less H20. Did anybody mention AI data centres and the amount they use for cooling? Let's not stand for it, comrades.... greens.scot/datacentres

My front steps looked lovely on Saturday morning. Not so by the evening after a gale blew the flowers all over the garden and snapped the cosmos in half. Anyway, hello again darlings. Nice to be back.

Achieved Nirvana today. Eating rhubarb pudding & drinking coffee in the sunshine, in a beautiful garden in my favourite town with my beloved by my side and this fluffy cat rubbing my leg. Wonderful. Came home to find neo-Nazis had shoved one of their grubby shitty leaflets through my letter box!

You there! Stop fighting and start enjoying some spring wild flowers, like these...

Sea campion, or sea coo-cracker, in a cold wind at Port Logan.

It's been a grand day for contemplating Torhouse Stone Circle.

Art in Nature! Seen this morning, a swan created by bird poo.

I'm sure everybody knows this already but just in case: becoming a Nazi is absolutely not a symptom of bipolar disorder. www.itv.com/news/2026-04...

A special treat for people who like clouds, water & daffodils.

St Andrews has so many historic buildings it would be asking too much to post pictures of even 10% of them. Just down the road, here's the gorgeous village of Crail.

Chilly eventide, Broughty Ferry.

Spring colours

Bloomin heather.

And for non-Americans, non-allies of America and all the women, children and animals who are in jeopardy through no fault of their own.

Kitty left a message on my laptop...

The crocuses are out and looking fab in Kirkcudbright.

Great news. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The 16th century round tower at Portpatrick stands next to St Andrew's Kirk, which hasn't been in use since 1842. It's a home for jackdaws nowadays, and might have been so for the last 184 years for all I know.

Lovely old road bridge over the River Bladnoch in the sunshine today. Picture taken from the car park at the distillery.

The Mull of Galloway is Scotland's southernmost point. You'll need a good head for heights if you decide to follow this sign, and you'll lose your hat too if not careful because it's always windy. Great scenery though.

The Feast of St Valentine is a celebration of romantic love, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. xx

If you found Gaelic hard to understand, try some mediaeval English instead: Mirie it iſ while ſumer ilaſt ƿið fugheleſ ſong, oc nu neheð ƿindeſ blaſt and ƿeder ſtrong! Ei, ei! Ƿhat ðiſ nicht iſ long, and ich ƿið ƿel michel wrong, ſoregh and murn and faſt! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HXT...

This is great. It was on BBC Alba the other night. If you didn't see it, here's another chance. I hope you like it. #Donegal www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFp1...

Crazy deals at Morrison's. So that's 2 vegan breakfasts? No thanks. We'll have 1 vegan breakfast, and then another 1 please.

Weather so dreich it can stop a dalek.

More Rabbie, for Burns Nicht. So lovely.

It's Rabbie Burns' 276th birthday. He grew up in a farming family but to make ends meet worked for Customs & Excise, where his interrogations were so fierce he became known as Third Degree Burns.* This beautiful poem became Dick Gaughan's signature song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ7o... *joke

Soft rain today at Carlingwark Loch.

Welcome to my new friends. For those in the USA, If I've not followed you back it's because I'm all Trumped out, but I send you my genuine admiration, support, sympathy & love.

Far too many talented artists here. Time to redress the balance. This is called A Woman Surprised By A Wasp.

Hadn't realised just how unethical Spotify is. My account is now closed. The company won't notice till many more of us quit as well. Just like Twix really. The US government didn't renew their contract but till 1 January Spotify was running adverts for people to join ICE. That deserves a red card.

We really need cheering up. This will do the trick, but only for fans of Kurt Vonnegut. It must be the most classic Vonnegut paragraph of them all. If you've not read Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's Cradle or Hocus Pocus I recommend them, but not Bluebeard or Deadeye Dick, which are surprisingly dull.

Wigtown's parish church, rebuilt in 1730, was replaced by a new one next door in 1851, but some of it still exists. It's an interesting feature of what is a lovely wee former county town.

Boats in the mud at Annan Harbour. The blue-painted one will never float again; I think the other one might be somebody's cosy home.

First snowdrops of the year in Stranraer. Fab.

Moon tennis

Today's walk in the December sunshine. 2025 has just 1 day left. May it be a peaceful one.

Roe deer today in Kirkcolm, North Rhins. She's keeping an eye on me even though we're on opposite sides of the burn.

The Besotted Wretch; bookshop, cafe & welfare rights advice, Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, in January 2016. When the same 2 guys came back to try to rob us a second time we knew we'd probably be better off closing down. We worked more or less for nothing, but have no regrets. It was a dream fulfilled.

The wreck of the Monreith, Dhoon Bay.

Nothing but repeats on TV this evening, folks, so how about a game of dominoes instead? Confession: I'd never heard of artist Horace Pippin (1888 to 1946) till about 10 minutes ago but I love his work already.