My Portfolio

  With ice and snow on the ground and no treadmill handy, one’s thoughts may turn again to the possibility of mall- walking, an activity enjoyed by some older folks. Unfortunately, if there was ever a place where I prefer not to tread for any reason, it is “The Mall.” A...

I think I was born whistling. I can thank James Smith Turner II (and whoever passed it to him!) for that--he always had a tune on his lips, as often expressed in a whistle as in any other way. As to whether it is ladylike to whistle . . . that's...

    MILESTONES--or maybe Highlights?   GLASGOW, LANARKSHIRE, SCOTLAND   when we moved into our very own house (even a new one) in Drumchapel and I spied a friend outside when I fell in love with a cylindrical satin-wood post-box, my favorite toy when I played my first real song on the...

A. Hmmh. Okay:  Mum was not a willing housewife, and I have struggled with housewifery all my life. It has been a real handicap that I hope I can overcome one of these days!  I surely hope my daughters have gone beyond what they learned from me. B. I have a...

Wickedness never was happiness. I would not have swiped that tantalizing little tub of Tiddlywinks from the ironmonger's shop of the generous Cunningham family in Golspie. I never let on to anybody and it never occurred to me to brave a return of same.  To assuage my guilt I eventually tried...

I am so grateful for a good, faithful and kind husband, and five children to match. If someone had asked me as a young adult how I would envisage my life in forty years' time, it would have been much different from the one I have. At that time I simply...

I believe--I know--we are all God's children; that he loves us deeply and wants us to come back to live with Him.  I believe--I know--that Christ, His Son, made this possible for us to accomplish. "All" that is required of us is to hone our lives in such a way that...

A strong, recurring theme in the life-histories of both my father and my mother is, thankfully, SACRIFICIAL LOVE. What a warmth comes to my soul as I read my dad describe his father as "the kindest man I ever knew." James Smith Turner the Elder lived in a densely-inhabited Glasgow sandstone...