Category Archives: Stories

Let’s discuss fireplaces. Or more precisely why there’re only scattered open fireplaces left in all of Kinrowan Hall these days: one in the Library, one in the Pub and in the senior staff residences (RHIP).  Why this is so is what … Continue reading →

I figured one time that there are some fifteen miles (yes miles, I never took to the metric system, nor has anyone else here) of trails and walking paths that need continuous work. Some are essentially raised pathways, like the … Continue reading →

I was watching a New Years Eve gig and it was clear to me how tribal it felt. Good communities are tribes. They have rituals and myths and those kinds of deeper realities that light up everyday reality and give … Continue reading →

It was a dark and stormy night. More precisely, it was a dark and stormy Wednesday night and I’d escaped to the weekly Chix with Stix gathering in the room behind the Library. Most of the time it’s the domain … Continue reading →

I had an exemplary kedgeree for my breakfast this morning along with a lovely lapsang souchong tea. Now if you’re reading this in the States, you might be puzzled as to what I ate. And when you hear what it … Continue reading →

She was tall for her age, and lean, a great tree-climber and a magnificent storyteller — Patricia McKillip’s Winter Rose Here in this quite remote Scottish Estate where the nearest town’s a good thirty-five miles away, the group of less than … Continue reading →

I found this charming letter in a bundle of archival material that we were cataloging for the Library this past week. L.L. Littlesworth, Esq., was the Estate Librarian for most of the late Victorian era. From the letters of L.L. Littlesworth, … Continue reading →

Her name was Bronwyn ap Tewdwr and she was our guest judge for the annual pudding contest. ‘A pudding contest?’ you ask. And I say, ‘Why not?’ Real pudding, like real ale, is a long way from the packaged puddings … Continue reading →

Dear Anna, I thought you’d appreciate this copy of Ciaran Carson’s Last Night’s Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music, which is the best book ever done on Irish traditional music. I particularly like the chapter on what to … Continue reading →