Cowden Japanese garden with Marceline and family

I recently visited one of my favourite places, the Japanese garden at Cowden, and met up with Marceline and her family. I've known Marceline Smith of Asking for Trouble for some years after first coming across her through her zines about Japan. And I've also got to know her sister Nicolette on Instagram, after we both took part in a postcard exchange that Marceline organised.

Marceline and Nicolette were on holiday in Fife with their dad and his partner, and I'd put together some Fife travel tips for them (eventually those will become a blog post as Marceline suggested!). I really enjoyed following their travels on Instagram and seeing them enjoying some of the things I'd suggested (especially the Fisher & Donaldson cakes!). On their last day they were going to visit Cowden, so I quickly dashed back from the Orla Kiely talk in Edinburgh to join them!

I seem to have mostly got photos of the back of people's heads, for which I must apologise! We were all having so much fun exploring the garden that I didn't want to disturb anyone by asking them to pose for a photo, and I always prefer candid photos anyway.

We had a good look round the garden, then, after I was treated to lunch (thank you again!), we headed out again and luckily the sun came out! It was lovely having their company when exploring the garden.

In Colourful Company Edinburgh meetup

Earlier this month I went to Edinburgh to meet up with some folks from the In Colourful Company online community. December is a busy time of year, and it was absolutely miserable weather, so only four of us made it along, but we had a lovely time. 

I’d been following Franca online for almost 10 years, after coming across her in the Wardrobe Remix group on Flickr, so it was amazing to meet up with her at last when she organised this get-together. It was also lovely to see Christina, who I’d met on the Glasgow walk, and get a chance to chat to her properly. And it was great to meet Kitty too. 

Because the weather was so horrible we had decided to meet at a vegan cafe, Beetroot Sauvage, and not bother with the murals. Maybe we’ll do that in the spring when the weather is better! The food was delicious. I had a croissant filled with avocado and scrambled tofu – it has really inspired me and I’ve been trying out some tofu scramble recipes at home! 

Topics of conversation ranged between sexism, veganism, crafts, pets, archaeology, and much more. I went with great plans of taking lots of photos, but I ended up having so much fun chatting that my camera stayed in my bag and I only took a few photos with my phone!

Autumn in Dollar

My failed first attempt to visit Cowden Garden (forgot my purse) led to an exploration of Dollar itself instead, which could be done for free! I had a wander up and down the little stream, and ventured to the edge of Dollar Glen (didn't have the right shoes on for a more in-depth exploration of that!).

It was the perfect sunny autumnal day, with the leaves turning glorious colours, and it's a lovely place to look around, so I was glad that my 45 minute drive hadn't been a waste after all!

Sunday self-portraits: Autumn garden

When I went to see the autumn leaves at Cowden Japanese Garden, I deliberately wore my yellow coat and beret so that I could take some self-portraits against the colourful leaves.

Since I visited Japan in 2006, wearing a pink jacket, I've always had the theory that I should wear a bright coat when going interesting places, so that I can pick myself out in other people's photos. This had the unexpected benefit on this occasion of me being approached by a freelance press photographer who wanted to take lots of photos of me against the red acer tree. You can see some of her photos on the Cowden Garden Facebook page:

Cowden Garden in autumn

During my October holidays the autumn leaves were as spectacular as I've ever seen them. One sunny lunchtime I suddenly decided to head to the Japanese garden at Cowden, 45 minutes away. It wasn't until I saw the sign to turn off that I remembered my purse was in my living room and I wouldn't be able to pay the entrance fee!

But every cloud has a silver lining, as the following morning the weather was still lovely and I was the first to arrive at the garden so had it to myself for a while.

Visiting this garden, with its colourful trees, curved bridge, and perfectly reflecting water, was the next best thing to being in Japan in autumn, as you can see from the photo above!

Harran Hill bluebells

A chance comment on someone’s Instagram photo of Ravenscraig Park in Kirkcaldy, where I usually go to see the bluebells each year, clued me in to the idea that Harran Hill at Lochore Meadows was also an amazing place to see them, so Dad and I headed there on a sunny day during my belated Easter holidays to explore.

We ended up following a lady up the hill who was doing a survey of the bluebells for the Scottish Bluebell Society (or something like that!).

The bluebells were lovely, although they hadn’t quite hit their peak when we were there. They formed a blue haze over the forest floor.

Heriot-Watt revisited

For my birthday this year I decided to indulge in a bit of nostalgia by visiting my old university, Heriot-Watt University on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I'd only been on campus once since graduating in 1995 (that was when I finished my MSc in Human Computer Interation, just in case any of my BSc Chemistry classmates are reading this and thinking I've got my dates wrong!), and that was 15 years ago to the day, when I was there for a meal in the evening, so I didn't see much of the place that time.

Considering that I'd spent a whole year travelling all the way there from Glenrothes each day, it's bizarre that I've then spent decades thinking of it as somewhere that would take a lot of effort to visit! All I needed to do was catch the train at Markinch first thing in the morning, as I used to do, then get off the train at Haymarket after a 40 minute journey, and hop straight on a bus for another 40 minute journey.

The campus itself was my home for 3 of the years that I was at uni, so it was very strange to see how it looks now that the halls of residence and campus flats I lived in have been demolished. It really opens up the area around the loch.

I was really surprised to hear that they are thinking of demolishing what I think of as the "new" students' union building, which opened when I was in second year. Before that we would go drinking in what was known as the TU (Temporary Union), which was little more than a hut!

I really enjoyed walking round the buildings and campus, and even though I spent more than half a day there I didn't see everything I wanted, so I will definitely be going back. I loved seeing the new things, like some of the new sculptures around campus, and the places I felt particularly nostalgic about like the sunken garden and the green doors of the Computer Centre.