2007 was a very busy year, with several exhibitions to work for, and lots of bird trips - to the Northumberland coast, Tiree, Mull and Lunga, and also to North Berwick where I was privileged to take part in the annual Seabird Drawing Course, and which included two unforgettable days with the gannets on the Bass Rock.

Tiree was full of calling corncrakes, Lunga's bird cliffs captivating as ever ( but we had to sail away prematurely to avoid a gale and were storm - bound nearby for two days in a tiny anchorage) and Mull, as everyone seems to know now, is heaving with eagles, otters and wintering waders and wildfowl. Unforgettable was seeing a huge sea eagle put up a big flock of barnacle geese from Inch Kenneth one February morning.

All this yielded sketches and paintings for a winter exhibition here at Burnlaw, with local birds also popping up - dippers from the Allen river below us, and lapwings and owls from the farm itself.

I also exhibited at the Steadings Gallery in Mull. A recent week there resulted in some very stormy landscapes, and paintings of burns in spate. Also mergansers and herons, and the ubiquitous ostercatchers on Calgary sands. Painting outside was challenging but exhilarating, with wind, rain, hail and snow. I did get to draw red deer, seen from the cottage windows through the telescope - almost invisible as they browsed in the ancient oakwoods on the hill opposite.

Teaching work this year included a series of watercolour courses at The Garden Station, and watercolour days at the Burnlaw Centre (see workshops)