May ‘Blossom Time’

May ‘Blossom Time’

One of the abiding joys of Spring is the fact that many deciduous trees waken up from their winter dormancy and burst into flower. They are festooned in fragile blossom and look absolutely stunning and perhaps one of the most special of all these flowers is the Cherry...
“Voices of Spring”

“Voices of Spring”

We have been pruning apple trees this week. Not just any old apple trees but the old, gnarled, overgrown, Victorian trees planted in the Walled Garden and at other places on the Estate. Mature trunks!  It feels wrong to cut good healthy wood from living trees,...
“Green winter, white Easter?”

“Green winter, white Easter?”

On New Year’s Day, 2019, I went up to the house to feed our stray cat and came home with three snowdrop flowers. Such a mild start to 2019, I’m sure you’ll agree, but snowdrops flowering on January 1st? Spring is definitely about two or three weeks ahead of this time...
William Ramsay of Barnton & Stirling Racecourse

William Ramsay of Barnton & Stirling Racecourse

Bannnockburn House Links Between 1787 and 1883, Bannockburn House was owned and occupied by various members of the Ramsay family of Barnton in Edinburgh. In 1787, William Ramsay, an Edinburgh merchant banker who also owned Barnton House in Edinburgh, Sauchie House and...