I've been called a grumpy old man by a fellow Blipper, but I can't imagine why! I'm totally positive about everything, apart from . . . . what am I saying?

I was born in Woking, Surrey, grew up in Teddington and Hampton Hill in SW London, worked in the Woodland Garden in Bushy Park f Read more...

I've been called a grumpy old man by a fellow Blipper, but I can't imagine why! I'm totally positive about everything, apart from . . . . what am I saying?

I was born in Woking, Surrey, grew up in Teddington and Hampton Hill in SW London, worked in the Woodland Garden in Bushy Park for a few years and moved to Scotland in 1973, firstly to the gardens at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, then to Ross Priory garden on Loch Lomond. I am currently Property Manager and Head Gardener at the National Trust for Scotland's Arduaine Garden, near Oban in Argyll, but reluctantly have decided to retire and will be leaving at the end of February 2016. 

I'm married to Mrs Maurice1948, who is from Glasgow. We have two grown-up daughters, one living in Edinburgh, the other on the Isle of Mull, and two cats, Rosie and Susie, who were both rather wild but are getting better and love to walk round the garden with me. We'll be moving to Oban when I leave Arduaine.

I'm a keen amateur photographer with an interest in landscapes, plant life and candid portraits - there's selection of my stuff here on Flickr. My main DSLR is a Nikon D50 with a Tamron 10-270 zoom. More recently I've acquired a Sony Cybershot DSC HX300 which I tend to use more and more, being much lighter and more compact and having a good Zeiss lens. I also have a tiny Canon PowerShot SD 780 IS which I use when I need a camera I can slip into my pocket. I'm Competition Secretary for Oban Photographic Club.

March 2016

I retired from Arduaine on 29th of February and we now live in Oban, high up behind McCaig's Tower. I'm going to have more difficulty finding good Blips as I won't have the garden as an inexhaustible supply of good subjects, but that's a good challenge! At least nobody can accuse me of Blipping the same subject every day!

April 2017

I've started a group called 'Keep Oban Beautiful', which I hope will be involved in anything that will make the town more attractive, whether by protecting trees, helping to maintain flower beds, encouraging schools to teach their pupils more about social responsibility, clearing rubbish - anything positive, in fact.