What’s my own part in this climate change mess? As COP26 launches in Glasgow (on Monday as I write, cavalcades of fancy cars are transporting world leaders from their private jets to the conference venue) I thought I’d better face the music. I can’t sit in my centrally heated home watching the news on my… Read more »
Posts Categorized: HNM Column
Menopause. Yes, it matters.
Question: How did you celebrate World Menopause Day last week? I’m going out on a limb here, but unless you are female and in your 40s or 50s, you probably dismissed it as irrelevant or unsavoury. And even if you are a menopausal or peri-menopausal woman, you might have guiltily glanced at a few articles,… Read more »
Ghillie’s Taste of the Highlands… and other stories
Ghillie’s love letter to the Highlands The thing about recipe books is that even when your kitchen shelves are overflowing, even with the unlimited foodie inspiration of the entire internet in your pocket, there is always room for another cookbook. And the newest is usually the favourite. That rule certainly applies to the newest to… Read more »
Hydro Screws, paddling & impulse buys
Old solutions to new problems A few weeks ago, I resolved to reduce my reliance on single-use plastic. It was pointed out to me what a relatively new thing our dependence on plastic is. Going back to paper bags for fruit and veg, and cotton dish cloths instead of plastic sponges, is reverting to what… Read more »
E-bike bliss, plus jogging-on & Bond bugbear
Hi-Bikes? Ooh, hello! E-bikes in Inverness? Just £3 for a three-hour trial? Irresistible. Last Saturday morning, with Daughter #1 and her partner here for the weekend, we each downloaded the Hi-Bikes app, uploaded our details, and looked for available bikes. We chose the Inverness Campus rank; more scope for getting used to them in a… Read more »
Drastic about reducing Plastic, plus networking’s back!
I have a drastic need to reduce my plastic You don’t need me to tell you about the impact that plastic has on our environment. From marine and soil pollution to the fossil fuels needed to produce the stuff, our over-reliance on it is an environmental disaster. Some plastics are brilliant, of course, and have… Read more »
The Highlands’ dark secrets, plus theatre, and ounces?
The sobering History of the Highlands and Slavery It’s a while since I’ve swum in Loch Dochfour, but when I do, I always pause mid-stroke and take in the beauty of Dochfour House, that orange-ochre coloured Italianate mansion sitting amid formal gardens on the north shore of the loch. It’s a house that speaks of… Read more »
Embracing the wrinkles. Plus Savile’s cottage &’just one thing’ x13
Who’s that woman in the mirror? I caught sight of myself in the mirror the other evening, except that it wasn’t me staring back. I was cleaning my teeth and there she was, my mother. She wasn’t actually in the bathroom with me – it’s been several decades since she supervised my toothbrush technique –… Read more »
Twenty Years On… plus Old High, Outlander and Mikeysline
Twenty Years On There are some things we are unlikely ever to forget. And depending on our ages, they’ll be different things for each of us. I was too young to remember the moon landings, but I remember being in a static caravan near Achmelvich Beach when I heard that Elvis had died. I was… Read more »
Life without technology?
There’s nothing like an audiobook to get a story, a concept, or an idea into my head. I’ve been a reader since before I can remember (the heat of the lightbulb in my bedside lamp used to betray my nocturnal reading as a kid) but in the last couple of years I’ve enjoyed audiobooks too…. Read more »