This was a nice surprise to be included in the @handsupfortrad Women in Culture and Music list for International Women’s Day. I feel ever more strongly that music and culture is life. It is through creative expression that we bring people together to connect and share. Human connection is what we need more than ever. I just try and do my bit to help this happen.
Totally thrilled to have won ‘Event of the Year’ at #natrads2025 for producing the 25th Anniversary of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award 2025. It’s an honour and a joy to work alongside @maudstart to bring this culturally important award to the airwaves. There are so many people involved in making it happen and who have contributed to its continued existence. Thank you to you all especially @simonthoumire who had the idea for it in the first place. But at the beating heart of it are all the amazing young musicians who keep the tradition alive. Long may the carrying stream flow.
Delighted that the 25th Anniversary of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award 2025 has been nominated for 'Event of the Year' @scotstradmusicawards
It's a great privilege to produce this Award, working with my ever enthusiastic colleague @maudstart and also the wonderful folks @bbc.alba and @bbcradioscot to bring it the airwaves and onto your screens. But also with the magnificent musicians @jennbutterworth@jenaustinpiano and @signyjak who support all the young folks with their music making. Not to mention @simonthoumire for establishing the award in the first place and his continued input.
But most of all, all the AMAZING young musicians who put themselves out there and keep the music going in such an impressive and professional way. It fills my heart with hope and joy to work with them.
If you are able, we'd be very grateful if you voted for us to show your appreciation for an award that contributes to a thriving music scene in Scotland, offering a platform for the remarkable young talent we are very lucky to have here.
Over the past year, Hayden Lorimer @bluehumanities and I have been gathering material for the series #WinterWell @bbcradio4 We have heard from many people who find the dark months a real trudge, people who are deeply affected by a lack of light. What has been most inspiring is learning about the creative adaptations they have made to the season. Noticing the detail of the small changes that happen each day rather than viewing winter as one long stretch of grey. Accepting the innate biological inclination towards rest. Celebrating the light when it shows up. Dressing for the weather. Getting up and out early to catch the light. Adjusting expectations around productivity. Breakfasting by candlelight. Fairy lights aren’t just for Christmas.
Underlying this is a quiet radicalism which centres on drawing wisdom from the vulnerable. I am deeply grateful to @alec_finlay who showed me how much we can learn from those who experience limit. Also to @robsaintjohn for the fabulously atmospheric original music he created for the series. And to everyone involved who spoke so honestly. Although I don’t experience Seasonal Affective Disorder, making this series has reframed my attitude towards the season and I’m actually looking forward to it this year.
Six weeks living the simple life touring #denmark #norway and #sweden with the family. No news, no social media but many many swims, walks, cycles and sunsets. Very grateful to have been able to carve out this precious time with the family. And relieved our old van managed to cover the miles without breaking down.
What’s going on here? Is it a mop, a dog’s head or a tribble? No, it’s a microphone wind muff. Radio Scotland’s Helen Needham joined me for a walk around Cambo Gardens to see what wild plants we could eat. The ‘Out of Doors’ program is broadcast on Radio Scotland tomorrow morning. But apparently I talked so much, Helen had to arrange for an extended session to be published on the Scotland Outdoors Podcast on Wednesday 14th. I did warn her that I could talk for Scotland if she got me going on plants, health, food, and wild ways!! She’d enjoyed reading my recent book ‘Free Food’ and just let me run. That’s stamina Helen!
Thank you @greenladybroadcasting , it was fun. And a big thanks to the wonderful Cambo Estate @cambo_gardens with their fantastic rewilding program.
Tune in to ‘Out of Doors’ on BBC Radio Scotland @bbcradioscot or catch up on BBC Sounds
#freefood #wildfood #foraging #forager #wildfood #wildbiome #freefood #eatwild
Spring Equinox (and Birthday) Adventure. A life affirming trip into the mountain of #benabhuird in the Eastern Cairngorms under Spring skies. After cycling as far as we could get, we hiked towards the zebra striped hills with the aim of making it to the coire to bivvy for the night. The snow specked slopes helped us to navigate our way up to the tear shaped Dubh Lochan as dusk fell. We found a shelter stone close to the half frozen lochan and set up camp under Bloodhound Buttress. T elegantly produced a bottle of champagne to accompany dinner! A sky full of stars above us as we lay cocooned in our bags, feeling the energy of the universe pulse through us. No wind and only the odd clucking of the ptarmigan throughout the night. Eagles at dawn playing on the thermals high above the coire. Crampons and ice axes to climb out of the bowl. Followed by the full and unrelenting force of the wind for a snowy hike around the plateau. How we celebrated the occasional shelter offered by a rock along the way! On the way back, we stopped by the #secrethowff for a brew. I was first introduced to this incredible place by Ashie Brebner, one of the men who built it in the 1950’s. Mostly manual labourers from Aberdeen, they would take the bus out to Braemar every Saturday afternoon after work, carrying the building materials for miles trying to avoid the beady eyes of the gamekeepers. All so they could have a place to be within the mountains. As I strode heavy legged out of the mountain I thought of them and their strength and determination. It made my legs lighter knowing their story.
Increasingly I crave spending time in places where I can’t hear traffic and human generated noise. We are very lucky to be not too far away from one such place which is a real favourite - Glen Derry @ntsonline #marrlodgeestate I really wanted to take my two daughters there so they could experience what it is like to be in such a place. Life is simplified. They cycled like rockets to Derry Lodge and then scampered like goats up the lower flanks of Derry Cairngorm. Singing, telling stories, joking, asking questions. Later we took them to a most magnificent tree which is believed to be the second largest Scots Pine in Scotland. As the winter sun dipped behind the hill beyond, we sat on her warm roots and felt honoured to be in the presence of such wisdom, resilience and experience.
Ben Avon is a magic mountain. Of all my Cairngorms experiences, this one just keeps revealing more secrets. Even in the mist with some concentrated navigation required. In the shadows, the tapestry of the alpine flora truly comes alive. The burn was our guide and we drank deeply from her source high up. The sweetest and softest of water gliding over mosses of black, maroon and yellow. Before the climb, we bivvyed in a ruined cottage above Loch Builig. Stags roared either side of the Glen all night. Grouse laughed. Frosted bags at dawn. Cobwebs everywhere. A warm walk across the moorland to the foot of the mountain.
In the mist higher up, we saw a hare. And we think dotterel. We saw no other humans. We didn’t get to the far corries but that will have to wait until the next time we take time to go in. #benavon #cairngorms
It’s been a Summer of Movement, Family and Work of a mostly pleasant kind. A bit of a mixed bag on the weather front too. I keep forgetting to capture things so thanks to the people who took some of these photos.#mull #ganavansands #cambridgefolkfestival #roseisle #erraid
Over the past couple of months, I've been working with these 5 fabulous people on a series called #digwhereyoustand for @bbcradio3 I've travelled around the Celtic Nations to record stories, songs and tunes from particular places.
It was all sparked by @byrnesteve and his concept of #digwhereyoustand which is really about discovering local culture and tradition and celebrating it. We recorded at Dickmontlaw near his home town of Arbroath with the focus on a Mabel Skelton song called 'Pickin' Tatties'.
Then to #Cornwall and @angelcakepie2 who dug up a Cornish version of 'The Lark in the Morning' collected at the Falcon Inn in St Mawgan in the 1890's.
@cynefinmusic enticed me to #ceredigion in Wales to learn about his mission to save the endangered #welshblackoats and how he is making music inspired by words of the local farmer poets.
Then to the #yarrowvalley in the Scottish Borders with @loriwatsonmusic to hear about James Hogg's (the statue in the pic) version of the tragic ballad #thedowiedensoyarrow
And finally to #arnisdale in the West Highlands where @henderhog shared the story and the tune passed down from #aonghasgrant about the fiddler who met a fairy on the way home from a wedding in Knoydart.
You can find it on @bbcsounds #digwhereyoustand
