Memories in Words and Pictures
This photograph of me was taken on the steps of the first house I ever lived in, a quarter villa in the east of Edinburgh. It's the first house my parents owned and the home to which both my younger sister and I were taken after our respective births. We moved away the summer before... Continue Reading →
Apparently (according to Take That and others) it only takes a minute to fall in love. I might not make such an extravagant claim but I know where they're coming from. I too have fallen in love in the blink of an eye, at the drop of a hat, out of a clear blue sky... Continue Reading →
Twilight is bewitching and enchanting, but the gloaming is soothing and secure, a time out of time when the day's worries and stresses fade away. The gloaming delights me and never more than when I'm in a city. The contrast between the clamour of life going on around me and my own personal bubble of... Continue Reading →
Given my penchant for travel and my fascination with how it was in an earlier age, it should come as no surprise that my favourite London shop is Stanfords, the long-established travel bookshop. Its current home is in Long Acre in Covent Garden but it is poised to journey just around the corner to Mercer... Continue Reading →
Running alongside my love of reading are a passion for maps and a desire to travel – a real combination of my parents’ interests and all encouraged by them as I was growing up. For a long time my actual travel was very limited but my dreams and my interest never have been, with the... Continue Reading →
Last week I discovered that my job had become a victim of budget savings. In common with councils across the country, Moray finds itself in the position of having to save millions and so my job with its wonderful Libraries Service will end soon. I'm sad about this obviously. It really is the best Libraries... Continue Reading →
I can’t remember why and I can’t remember when, but a couple of years or so ago I took it into my head to read the novels of Dorothy L Sayers. I’ve always known that they exist and I was vaguely aware that they were about Lord Peter Wimsey and (as I thought) Harriet Vane. ... Continue Reading →
The last time Scotland sweltered for so long under a relentlessly sunny sky was a significant summer in my life. I was eight and my little world changed dramatically. For three years we had lived in Dumfries, the Queen of the South straddling the River Nith. I have partial memories of living elsewhere but the... Continue Reading →
It's not just pictures of places that hold memories. This is my fiftieth birthday cake. I may have become rather over-excited about celebrating my half century, a state only intensified by a brief flirtation at death's door the previous year. Whatever the reason, I was determined to embrace my age and share my birthday with... Continue Reading →
At the tip of Denmark, nestled between two seas, is the beautiful town of Skagen. Once home to artists, it exudes charm and history. On my summer visit the historic buildings drowsed in sunshine. Had the Krøyers appeared, strolling on the beach at Grenen, I should not have been surprised.
Jane's Picture Journal 