To absent friends

When Moira and I came to Dalry in 1973, we had hardly settled in when there was a loud knock at our imposing front door.  On opening it, I found a dapper gentleman who introduced himself immediately as Bill Gorman, our local councellor: he welcomed us to his town and…

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It’s in the genes

It is quite amazing that what you might think of as the family inheritance, either in terms of  buildings, bricks, pieces of furniture or skills and interests, seldom go to where you think they might have. I always thought that, having been an architect, a teacher and someone who has…

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Water wheel

A cursory glance at the wheel as you passed would have shown you that it needs a little tender loving care. To that end, we have been trying to find the thirty-six large, crack free, pieces of elm which would allow us the rebuild it. So far we have spent…

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The Drama Man

So here I am, working on a new book for the Costume Collection, kindly grant-aided by Museum Galleries Scotland, and the first thing I required to do was to cast my mind back as to why the feck we had started collecting costumes or old clothes in the first place! …

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