About

My name is Katrina. I live on the east coast of Scotland, not from choice. After 30 years here it still doesn’t feel like home. Hence the name of my blog. West is still best as far as I am concerned. I’m married with two grown up ‘boys’. I’m interested in books, films, art, crafts, cooking, politics,gardening, museums and travelling around Britain. I worked in libraries before having my children.

32 thoughts on “About”

  1. My great great Aunt Agnes McCallum was credited by giving the name to the raspberry sauce for ice cream, it is a simple story how it started.

    Reply ↓

    • Slessor,
      That’s interesting. I’ve just recently discovered that in other parts of Scotland ice cream with raspberry sauce was called ‘Taly’s blood’ – very off putting I think.

      Reply ↓

  2. I just re-subscribed after realising I hadn’t been receiving updates from your blog for some days. Now to catch up 🙂

    Reply ↓

    • Valerie,
      I’m sorry about that, I had an inkling that subscribers weren’t receiving updates. Duncan is going to rectify it. Thanks for letting me know.

      Reply ↓

  3. I’ve really been enjoying your blog. However, your perspective on politics has been seeping out and is not very nice for those who disagree with you. But, I’ve enjoyed your travel thoughts and book descriptions. Thank you.

    Reply ↓

    • Melody ambler,
      I’m glad you’ve been enjoying ‘pining’. It is a huge advantage in life to get different perspectives on anything. I’m glad to say that I have friends of all stripes and opinions – even within my own family. Vive la difference – as they say!
      Katrina

      Reply ↓

  4. Hi Katrina,
    I am a recent follower through my blog feeder and am sure many of our interests are in common. My grandmother came from Buchaven in 1912 to Australia, settling in Ipswich (part of the amazing Scottish diaspora!); and I feel a great affinity for Scots and Scotland and her Fife. Hubby and I had a wonderful drive through Scotland in April. Indeed, the West Coast you pine for is exquisitely beautiful. In this new age we were chuffed to recieve a phonecall from Brisbane from our son and (my)step-son on a remote beach outside of Tongue on the NC 500. Regards from kindred spirit, Cathy

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Cathy,
      It sounds like you had a great time in Scotland recently, I haven’t been to Tongue but my son and his girlfriend cycled the NC 500 in the summer. Did you not visit Buckhaven while you were here? Mind you it isn’t really a place of beauty, or interest. I think I would have left if I had been your grandmother! Thanks for taking the time to comment I hope you continue to enjoy my blog. I have family who went to Australia in the 1960s and an ancestor who was transported there in the early 1800s for sedition!

      Reply ↓

  5. Yes, Katrina,
    We visited Edinburgh, the Highlands, Inverness, Islay, the West coast and all along the “top”, John O’Groats, Lochs Ness and Lomond, Glasgow, Stirling and the Kelpies, before train to three nights in Paris. My bucket list was done.
    My parents had done a similar drive thirty years earlier; my mothr suggesting W and I do it one day an dtoast them there. We toasted them and my maternal GM and GGM while staying in Anstruther. It was very moving seeing Buchaven, and photographing Methil across the bay.
    The Orkneys and Shetlands and other islands are yet still calling…….
    Australians with “convict” forebears are very proud of their heritage. I have often thought they have given the Australian character its larrikin aspect! Sedition sounds very exciting!

    Reply ↓

    • Cathy,
      You certainly got about! I hope you managed to get to St Andrews too while you were in Fife, it’s the most interesting place in the county. We’re going to the Orkneys in June – for the first time.
      My great great great-uncle or whatever he was didn’t last long in Australia as he died of a fever, but there is a very big monument in Edinburgh commemorating him and the others who were convicted along with him, you can see an earlier blogpost about it here. https://piningforthewest.co.uk/2010/05/04/martyrs-monument-edinburgh/

      Reply ↓

  7. Hi Katrina, Please could I use one of your images for a talk (unpaid!) I am giving to the Skye Gardening Society next month called “Where do Plants Belong?” It is the one with plants coming out of chimneys in Kirkcaldy.
    Best wishes,

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Stephen,
      Yes you can use the photo, I’m not sure if you can use it straight from Flickr, let me know if you need me to send you the original image. Interestingly Kirkcaldy High Street was ‘weeded’ a couple of weeks after I posted that blogpost, but of course it’s a never ending task, especially where the buddleia is concerned. I hope your talk goes well.

      Katrina

      Reply ↓

    • Anne,
      If I happened to be in England I might be pining for Kirkcaldy too! You are an unusual Langtouner, not many ever leave – in my experience. I plan to put some photos of old postcards of Beveridge Park on this blog soon, you might be interested to see them.
      Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.

      Katrina

      Reply ↓

  9. In 2007 we drove by a sign that said ‘Crianlarich’, and not long after, pulled into a lay-by and I was in tears. I was embarrassed. Had never done that before. But it was my first view of the Highlands, and I’ve never felt like that before or since. I’d have stayed if I could have. Nine years later we returned to Scotland for a month. I live in America, but I pine for the West Highlands too!

    Reply ↓

    • Julie,
      It’s strange but I know that other people have had that sort of experience. I read of one American/Scots man who was on the train and he thought he was having a heart attack – but it turned out that the train had just gone over the border from England into Scotland!! The other passengers celebrated by breaking out the whisky so a good time was had by all. Travelling up to Skye a few years ago I was entranced by how majestic the mountains looked. I hope you manage another trip back to Scotland.

      Reply ↓

  11. I enjoy reading the blog so I’ve bookmarked it instead of receiving email alerts and will check it every few days. 🙂 I found out recently that I am part Scottish, of course I loved Scotland before that too! Lynn, Maine USA.

    Reply ↓

  12. I enjoy reading the blog so I’ve bookmarked it instead of receiving email alerts and will check it every few days. 🙂 I found out recently that I am part Scottish, of course I loved Scotland before that too! Lynn, Maine USA.

    Reply ↓

    • Lynn,
      I hope you continue to enjoy ‘pining’. Do you have any idea which part of Scotland your ancestor came from?
      Ragards, Katrina

      Reply ↓

  13. Hi Katrina,
    am a red haired, freckled Librarian in Perth, Western Australia with two grown up sons (Lachlan and Fraser) with maternal Grandmother from Aberdeen and Grandfather from Kirkcowan in Wigtown and Galloway, while paternal Grandfather from Selkirk and paternal Grandmother from Berwick.

    I teach the data base ancestry.com to customers in my library and also have a very keen interest in my Scottish Family Tree.

    I long distance solo hike every year in Scotland (West Highland Way, Rob Roy Way and John Muir Way) but my long distance hike this year will probably be postponed to next year.

    Came across your block as a hyperlink (via Bill and Pat Paterson’s Scone blog) and just love it as I am such a ‘Scottaphile’. Congratulations on a great site!
    Cheers,
    Heather-Sophia

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Heather-Sophia,
      Thanks for dropping by! We seem to have so many similarities. I love your sons’ names, I almost had a Fraser, but he turned out to be a Gordon.

      I’m amazed that you come to Scotland every year to hike, we’ve always planned to do the West Highland Way but it has never happened, probably because we live in Scotland and in theory can do it anytime. I’m so glad that you’re enjoying ‘Pining’. I must look in at the Paterson Scone blog.

      Cheers,
      Katrina

      Reply ↓

  14. Hi Kat. Run your eye up the green slopes in the middle distance to the left of your title photo and you are roughly at my house. Overlooking Renton. Views of Ben Lomond to the north. Dumbarton Rock (from where that picture is taken) to the south. Anyway I am not making contact to rub in the east is east and west is west. I came across your blog while looking for ancestry. Skirvings. You never know, there just maybe a clue somewhere. A Watson ancestor Janet was born a Skirving in 1780 to George Fevar Skirving and Catherine Skirving (born Vogan). At the top of my Watson family tree handwritten by someone is “A Skirving died at Culloden”. Perhaps not on the battlefield. I cannot find him listed on either side. A mystery. I have found several Skirvings of later years, some of historical note, but no family ties. Yet the “Skirving” name has been used as a middle name, usually in recognition of the maternal side. I just wondered if you had done in genealogy in this line. All from the east side of the country.

    Reply ↓

  17. Hi Katrina
    I landed on this blog after googling Symingtons table creams. I am 63 years old next month and lost my parents in 2005 and 2018, but was brought up on table creams as a kid. Coffee and Maple & Walnut flavours were my favourites, and I am definitely going to give your recipe a try.

    As for the west coast of Scotland, what can I say !! My parents had a friend from Ottery St Mary in Devon who I believe may have done some work for David MacBrayne ferries back in the late 1950s or very early 1960s, and I heard some of the conversations about those wonderful sounding places in Scotland. I left school in 1978 and joined British Rail as a booking clerk. After 12 months service our grade was entitled to free travel so I just had to visit Skye !!!

    The first trip was from Wales via Crewe to Glasgow to catch the 1638 to Mallaig. I slept overnight in a coach in the siding there then caught the ferry over to Armadale the next morning then thumbed a lift with a nurse returning home from Glasgow. She dropped me at Broadford crossroads, where i caught a bus to Kyleakin, then ferry over to Kyle etc.

    My second trip was to do the journey in the opposite direction. So Wales-Crewe-Glasgow-Inverness to catch the last train down to Kyle of Lochalsh. Now I knew that a ferry was timetabled to.sail south from Kyle to Mallaig on Monday Wednesday and Friday, so I was anticipating to find somewhere to sleep on that Thursday night. Arriving Kyle and disembarking the train I noticed a fisherman on the platform.

    No idea what possessed me but I walked up to the chap in oilskins and asked what time the next ferry would be to Mallaig. He said that his boat would be leaving in a while and I could travel with them, so we walked down to the end of the platform, to the quay, then climbed aboard the fishing boat. I was led up to the wheelhouse and was mesmerised by the dark interior but with the controls lit by subdued lighting and with green glows from the radios radar etc. I suppose it was the Gaelic language talking on the radio which was the most gripping for me – didn’t understand a word !!!

    We entirely slipped moorings and headed away from the quay into the sea between the mainland and Skye then all of a sudden there was a huge metal grating sound and the bows of the fishing boat rose up. We had run aground on some rocks !!!! When I realised what had happened I must have had a real worried look on my face because the skipper laughed at me and told me not to worry. As a 17 year old from rural Wales I was thinking that I would be eaten by sharks but my mother wouldn’t know until I didnt return home the middle of the following week !!

    Another fishing boat arrived on the scene and one of our crew shot a line over to it to which they then hauled back a much thicker line to our boat. Once in position, and with their boat tugging, and full astern from our engines we slipped free of the rocks. he rest of the journey was uneventful, we sailed more or less East, then turned south into the Sound of Sleat. I went down into the mesroom and tried to sleep but I kept watching a towel hanging from a ceiling hook swing back and fore at quite an arc. Translating this into reality up on deck I realised we must have been bobbing around in what I believe was a storm 6 or 7.

    We eventually arrived in Mallaig harbour and I remember having to scramble across six other vessels to get to dry land. I walked over the station, expecting the coaches to be in the platform from the previous nights arrival from Glasgow Queen St, so walked up to the train and tried a door, found it unlocked so climbed in and sat down at probably about five AM. The train was less cold than being outside but was still cold, so I walked up to the locomotive and climbed in the cab which still had a bare amount of warmth, but ended up sitting inside the engine room, against the power unit for a little more warmth.

    I expected the traincrew to turn up around 5.30 AM so went back into the coaching stock, then sure enough the crew started up the diesel engine and fired up the steam boiler, and that lovely steam heating start passing through the train. I admit that after the sea journey from Kyle to Mallaig I was a little tired and catnapped off and on for the journey back to Glasgow, although I was awake for the passage through snow covered Monessie gorge – still one of my most favourite railway locations anywhere.

    At 17 years old I obviously had little fear back then Katrina !!! .
    Thanks again

    Phil Bartlett
    Great Wyrley
    South Staffs

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Phil,
      That was quite an adventure you had! My first trip to Skye was with my parents in 1970 when I was 11. We went by train having reserved tickets, but getting on at Dumbarton Central, the first stop after Glasgow meant that the train was already full, people were sitting in our seats and refused to move, even when we got the guard. So we had to stand all the way to Mallaig, and my dad was disabled, it must have been agony for him. My main memory from that first visit to Skye was the many burnt out car wrecks which seemed to be on so many of the sharp corners of those very rural roads. I was told that it was expensive to take your car over on the ferry to the mainland scrapyard, so people just dumped them and set them alight! We were there a few years ago and it’s so easy to just go over the bridge, but maybe not as exciting. A few years ago we just missed being on that ferry which ran aground on the island of Stroma on our way back from Orkney! I hope that you manage to make a nicely flavoured table cream from that recipe, I haven’t done it myself for quite a while now. I wish I had got a job working for BR, even if I was only pushing a tea trolley! Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
      Katrina

      Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *