Hello! Thank you for coming along, have a seat and a drink and enjoy some comforting chat from Aberdeenshire. The free shop is open at the weekends, Friday to Sunday and filled with the abundance of the garden. Our neighbours and passers-by have helped us to rescue gooseberries, kale,
I first grew borage at Brownhill Cottage as an experiment. I wanted to see how well it would grow in the Scottish climate and to explore how much of the plant could be useful. The spectacular blue flowers decorated dishes and found their way into floral salads, while I cooked
I didn’t intend to grow peas. I thought they might be quite challenging to grow in Aberdeenshire with its wild winds and unpredictable weather patterns. It seemed a shame to waste the peas I’d spent days tending as sprouting seeds, though, when I had to travel. I hurriedly
Every year, around late August, the question around the Port of Ness begins to arise, “Are the boys back?” It is a simple question, but it carries more weight than the words suggest. The boys are the Men of Ness, the guga hunters returning from Sula Sgeir, a remote rock
When we moved here, I wondered where the blackberries were. I was genuinely disappointed not to find any. They seemed to grow almost everywhere else, in hedgerows, along country lanes, at the edges of woods and fields, gardens and urban paths but looking around this garden, I couldn’t understand
There are some plants that deserve more than a recipe. Some become so woven into everyday life that they almost disappear. They are picked without ceremony, stirred into soups, folded into curries, added to pasta, blanched for the freezer, carried to neighbours or tucked into the free shop. Their usefulness
Having a great-niece called Rowan introduced me to the name several years ago, and for a long time Rowan belonged to a person before I met the tree. I thought it was a beautiful name but, if I’m honest, I wouldn’t have recognised a rowan tree if
On the first day of the free shop, I put out a punnet of blackcurrants and hoped they would find a home. By the evening, they were still there. I felt disappointed for about thirty seconds and then, unexpectedly, I felt relieved. Not because I didn’t want to share
I have spent the last few weeks trying to understand why one plant has occupied so much of my attention. When we first moved here, I decided the wolfsbane should go. It seemed the sensible thing to do. It is beautiful, but it is also one of Britain’s most
Gardening has its own dress code. There are many glamorous gardeners but I’m not one of them. I scrub up fairly well for a night out but my plants don’t care about dresses and mascara runs in rain and sweat. My gardening style is more decades old leggings
There is an old crab apple tree at Deer Abbey, in Aberdeenshire. If you look carefully, you can see how it started life being carefully trained against the stone-walled garden wall and then at some point, it just goes wild. The abbey itself survives mostly as foundations, now. Stones
Tomorrow, I turn fifty seven. I love birthdays. I love the messages arriving from different places and different chapters of life. Friends from Hampshire alongside friends from the Hebrides, and new friends. Colleagues from past projects alongside neighbours from this new corner of Aberdeenshire. People who would never otherwise meet
Under the Rose Growing up in Hampshire, I learned about the Hampshire Rose in primary school. I remember trying to draw it and getting it wrong. There was a correct arrangement of petals and gaps that I could never quite master. Somewhere there was supposed to be a petal where
The gooseberry bushes came with the cottage. There are about twenty five of them lining the fenced off section of the garden with their threatening thorns and generous intentions. First, I saw fruit, lots of fruit. More fruit than two people could possibly eat. Then, predictably, curiosity entered the chat.
The rhubarb patch was one of the first things my new neighbours warned me about, with amusement. Soon after I moved in, they gathered around me to share a photograph on a phone. The previous year’s rhubarb stood almost five feet tall, towering over the people holding it. It
I’ve been wondering what makes a weed a weed. Who decides? This week I made a cold infusion from cleavers, better known in the UK as sticky willy. Left overnight in water, it produced a surprisingly refreshing drink with delicate flavours of fresh peas and cucumber. Nettles have long
I have a honeysuckle growing outside my bathroom window. Maybe “growing” is too mild of a description. It has become an enormous presence, intertwined with a fuchsia and has advanced across the view so much that I can’t see out of the window at all. It flowers extravagantly and
I bought a medlar tree this week. I don’t have childhood memories of it aside from hearing about it in passing in old gardens or country estates. I have still never tasted one. Honestly, I bought it because I was curious. I’m just unappeasably interested in ancient flavours
I made a video for my little corner of the Gardenstead app last week, asking, “How can I own a tree?” I find it awe-inspiring that so many of the trees here are older than I am and will most likely still be here long after I am gone.
A month ago, we removed the wolfsbane from the front garden. Even writing that sentence feels slightly dramatic, as though I ought to have been wearing a cloak while thunder rolled overhead. In reality, I was mostly wearing gardening gloves and trying to stop the dog from enthusiastically “helping”. Dave
I think what interests me most about artificial intelligence is not whether it is entirely good or entirely dangerous, but the strange emotional territory it seems to prise open between those extremes. As is usual for me, I find myself noticing tensions and conflicting truths rather than arriving at conclusions.
Hello! Welcome to Outwith’s spring newsletter. You are very welcome. You will find conversational and seasonal chat here from Aberdeenshire, to keep you company as spring turns towards summer. We will bring you recipes, ideas for days out and walks, crafts and art projects, plus a deeper dive seasonal
Hello, welcome! You have arrived at Outwith’s first Spring newsletter. Our first ever newsletter, actually. Have a seat, grab a cup of your favourite brew and enjoy the seasonal images over a conversation. These images are simply here for people to enjoy. If you’d like to delve a