Hawthornden

It was an intense and fruitful month including plenty of exhuberance, concentration, poem productivity, exhaustion, talk, crises of confidence, walking, thinking, reading, pudding eating, learning. But all you're going to get (for now) is pictures:


the castle from the south side of the Esk river









from the Lady's Walk









from the west








from the driveway








a particularly characterful rock











view from the study library (with our one day of snow)

we had a couple of weeks of daffs

caves beneath the castle

from the boot hall looking into the 'courtyard' (once the banqueting hall). It's a stone stag with antlers. Although plenty of deer bounding about the estate.

the front door (locked at 1030)

Bronte's door with previous occupants listed. Other names used to identify writers' rooms were Drummond, Milosz, Herrick, Evelyn, Boswell and Jonson. I was very happy with my allocation. Assuming it was Emily.

inside Bronte room

view from Bronte


mystery Wellington boots (very natty)

other fellows (l to r):Veronica Bennett, Jonty Driver, Colin Donati and James Brookes (with a front view of the stag)