Mike Clark

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Mike discovered the joys of horticulture when, as a small child, he overheard a neighbour say she’d dropped a sixpence in the tattie patch. He has been digging ever since, with the tenacity of a true Scot, hoping one day to find a fiver.
Despite now running his own landscape gardening business, Mike claims to be permanently broke, due in part to his quest for fame resulting in writing gardening columns for free.
He likes trees, Jack Russells, and 12 year old Glen Ord, but not necessarily in that order. Gifts of any of these can be sent c/o britishexpat.com, but he would like to point out that the third item is by far the easiest and cheapest to post.
One of the highlights of his life was winning a toilet brush in a raffle. He persevered with it for ages, but he’s back on the paper now…
Mike approaches gardening and writing with exactly the same formula. Throw in plenty of manure, and something good will eventually spring up.

Kestrel

By Mike Clark | Published: 22 January 2007

Pic of the Week – 22 January 2007

All images are digitally watermarked – please don’t infringe copyright!

A kestrel perches on a fence-post. Given that it was Mike who submitted the photo, we’d guess it was taken somewhere in Northern Scotland…

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Mike discovered the joys of horticulture when, as a

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Scots pine

By Mike Clark | Published: 22 May 2006

Pic of the Week – 22 May 2006

All images are digitally watermarked – please don’t infringe copyright!

Mike adds:

“There’s just far too much competition on here.

“So I won’t even bother to offer the flowering Scots Pine.”

Mike, of course, is our resident gardening expert on BE – you can read what he has to say on the subject of Scots pines here: Clark in the Park: A Pine to Piddle Against

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Gralloching a pumpkin

By Mike Clark | Published: 29 October 2005

"When I was a bairn, in the north east of Scotland, we had never heard of pumpkins. With the advent of colour television last year, I realised neeps had competition. In black and white, you can't tell the difference." Mike Clark takes a look at the origins of Halloween and the traditional celebrations running into Guy Fawkes Night.
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The Twenty Forty-Five

By Mike Clark | Published: 23 September 2005

"Bored now, Prince Shuggie tossed the paperback onto the cheap plastic table. Like he cared that cheap plastic tables were banned. He'd inherited it from his grandfather. It was his legacy." In a short story, Mike Clark presents his nightmare vision of a re-run of the "Forty-Five" Rebellion - three centuries on.
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