Something is missing. Integrity. As I write (and forgive me, I file this column around a week before you get to read it) the news headlines are sickening. And it strikes me that from all the headlines – those about Downing Street parties, Prince Andrew (no HRH required) and Novak Djokovic – there’s something missing…. Read more »
Posts By: Nicky Marr
Food waste, jags, pink houses.
Cutting Food Waste Hands up if you don’t sniff the milk before making a cup of tea? I thought so – that’s barely a hand up across the whole of the north of Scotland. Like locking the bathroom door, plugging your phone in to charge before bed, or licking the bowl after baking a cake,… Read more »
Now is as good a time as any
Resolutions? Intentions? Now is as good a time as any. There is a quote from actor Hugh Laurie on a scrappy bit of paper beside my desk. It catches my eye every now and again and reminds me to just get on with the stuff I’ve been procrastinating over. Like hoovering the hall or finalising… Read more »
Best and worst, 2022 predictions, and re-cheesing!
How was your year? Bring it on, 2022 ‘How Was Your Day?’ is a thing Daughter #1 brought back to us after a year abroad between school and university. It’s a simple concept – over our evening meal we go round the table, each sharing the worst part of our day with each other. Then… Read more »
Avoiding the C-word* (*not Christmas).
Have you tried to have a conversation recently without the C-word coming up? I’m not talking about Christmas; I’m talking about the pandemic. We tried to ban it from conversation the other night while we sat outside, mulled wine in hands, the fire filling our hair with the deliciousness of wood smoke. But we failed…. Read more »
Christmas doesn’t have to be perfect
There’s a copy of Charlie Macksey’s book ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ on the table beside my bed, and I read it from time to time. It’s not a long book, nor a particular page-turner, it’s more a book to flick through and ponder. It’s a quiet book. It reassures and… Read more »
Officially an outlaw. Plus gritter names.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a confession. This week, my column is being brought to you by an outlaw. Since I last wrote, I have had a brush with the law, and been issued with a fine. I feel neither big nor clever, but instead find it reassuring. My rap on the knuckles proves that… Read more »
25 years a mother? No way.
Have I learned anything from 25 years as a mother? I am writing this on Daughter #1’s 25th birthday. That must mean that I have been a parent for 25 years. But that can’t possibly be true, because in my head I’m still only 26. The last quarter century has zoomed by faster than a… Read more »
The kids we once were, and a parrot.
Siblings – we’re 50-something versions of the kids we were We had a family gathering at the weekend. Three generations of a freshly Covid-tested batch of 19 of us, descended upon Stonehaven from all over Scotland. Over cups of coffee, long walks on the beach, a few pints in the Marine and dinner at Molly’s… Read more »
Maggie’s and Highland Hospice. Making lives better.
“As much as we might think we know about the impact that Maggie’s Highlands and The Highland Hospice must have on the people who turn to them for support, we haven’t got a clue. Until you’ve needed them, turned to them for help, and been embraced into their care, you can’t possibly know how valuable… Read more »