Green Fingers

I love gardening and it was great to get these two young gardeners planting flowers at North Kelvinside Meadow in Glasgow’s West End to launch The Incorporation of Gardeners  ‘Let Glasgow Flourish Garden Awards 2021’.  

The awards are open to everyone within Glasgow and the surrounding area.  There are three categories – Best Garden, Best Community Garden and Best Young Gardener. This year early April does not have a huge amount of flowers blooming but the daffodils really lifted the colours especially with the girls bright red dungarees.

Walking & Creativity

I’ve become a convert to walking over the last year. I try to walk at least two miles a day, and I don’t mean to the chip shop. Recently I was working on a new research project that explores experiences of walking and creativity during COVID-19

The University of Glasgow led project is to explore people’s experience of walking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Deirdre Heddon of the University of Glasgow, who is leading the Covid Walking Project, is pictured with family and friend’s dog Rafa as they painted pebbles in Queens Park. Art and creativity was one of my savours during lockdown. I had my Five Mile Smiles slideshow of pictures that appeared in The Herald Magazine last year showing some of the photographs I took while out walking around the Campsie Fells.

Flying High in Inverness

A day’s work was like going on holiday this month. I had a trip to Inverness as the University of the Highlands and Islands graduates are to feature in an art exhibition hosted at Inverness Airport.

The new exhibition, Highland Creatives, opens with works by Inverness College UHI alumni Louise Innes, Yelena Visemirska and Evija Laivina. They are all current practitioners at Wasps’ Inverness Creative Academy. It felt good being back in an airport building again after so long. 

The launch of Highland Creatives is in preparation for an increase in national travel and recommencement of international travel, expected later this year, while providing an opportunity for local emerging artists to showcase their work in a public space. I forgot how traveling a  couple of hundred miles north is that bit colder than in the central belt. The day after, Inverness had snow and I was lucky enough to see a herd of reindeer in the Cairngorm National Park. 

Lunch at Rouen Glen Park

Sometimes out on an assignment something surprising happens that’s nothing to do with what you’re photographing. I was working in Rouen Glen park in East Renfrewshire when a giant heron swooped down. It gave all around a bit of a start. The heron stopped and ignored everyone watching it, as it had its eye on a prize under some rocks. Then the big bird springs out with a huge eel in its mouth. The heron was there for the next half hour devouring its meal. All that was missing was the port and cigars.