Gardening Leave
The wonderful Frieda Morrison gave me the perfect excuse to leave the office this afternoon and drive through some of the most beautiful scenery in Scotland.
Frieda was recording a special edition of the Beechgrove Potting Shed at Stratherrick Primary School in Gorthleck. It involved a presentation to the schoolchildren who'd won her Starter Gardens competition and she'd asked me to come along and hand over the certificates. That meant a half hour drive toward Loch Ness and then up into the hills alongside Loch Mhor. It was a winding single track road for most of the way but a thrilling journey all the same.
Stratherrick Primary has just 29 pupils and the head teacher, Angela Cryans, arrived there two years ago after working in the east end of Glasgow. Today the school population doubled as a party of 18 pupils arrived from Achaleven Primary in Connel near Oban.
There were the usual photo-calls involving and I remarked to Frieda that we both appeared to be wearing very similar jackets. She told me that she is moving house at the moment and has been wearing weird combinations of available unpacked clothes but that "no one has noticed the difference."
Meanwhile I was asked to pose for a photograph in which I appear to be scoffing a plate of organic potatoes while hungry schoolchildren look on. Let's hope that's not the one they use in the newspaper.
