I was born in Scotland as many of you will have guessed by now, in November 1948,

on the west coast of Ayrshire in the seaside town of Largs.  It is situated on the Clyde with magnificent views of the Islands of Arran and the Cumbries, The Mull of Kintyre, with a vista of mountains, lochs etc. to the front and hills, glens, deciduous woods, conifer forests, bracken, heather moors, burns and waterfalls to the back.

As a boy ‘up the back’ or ‘up the hills’, as we used to say, was the only place to go when I was a kid and it was cheap. I only needed a bottle of scoosh and a packet of biscuits to keep me going. When I look at those hills now I wonder how I managed to get up them so easily and get home in one piece - I’m sure my Mum would have killed me if she had known what we had been up to (I nearly drowned once, got lost on the moors when the mist came down and nearly froze to death in my shorts in a snow storm). Somehow I always had the knack of getting home in time for tea fairly clean and tidy. In those days my favourite climbing tree was a huge Scots Pine and it still is but I’m not up to climbing them much now.

So you are all by now thinking what the hell is he doing down here leaving all that behind - work is the easiest answer, and it is very cold and wet up there in the winter and even in the summer!

All of the above gave me an insatiable appetite for nature in all its forms and a small re-creation of all that I miss in Scotland - hence my interest in Bonsai (Scots Pine being my favourite) and gardening, which explains the reason I am typing this at 7am on a Sunday morning. I’ve been out in the garden since sunrise which is my favourite part of the day - very little human noise, only the birds and Charlie our cat meowing for his breakfast. It is also a good time to catch slugs and snails unaware. To think as a boy I used to hate helping my Dad in the garden but now Maggie can’t get me back in to do other jobs around the house!

My first Bonsai was a native Beech given to me by my father about 20 years ago - I managed to keep it alive for 3 years. I think its dying was something to do with the fact it never got re-potted. Hopefully I have picked up a little more knowledge since then. I have around 100 Bonsai throughout the garden in different stages of development ranging from large Scots Pine to a very small Ash (not quite a mame yet but I’m working on it). My latest acquisition is a very large raft Korean Hornbeam that is at present totally untrained and will take at least 5 years to get to a good standard.

As you all well know I could go on and on but I think one page is enough for now - perhaps if I’m asked again I will continue the monologue.