"Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Polygon Books, an imprint of Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh, in 2020."--Title page verso.

In a time of distance. A washing line outside a Croft house -- Taste and memory -- In a time of distance. Journeys. Our journeys -- The train arriving at Platform Two -- Adelstrop revisited -- The language of pilots -- College of Hypnotherapy, next right -- Quality provisions for Ever -- Not Rus in Urbe but Suburbia in Rure -- A typology of angels -- Household gods -- Holy river -- Mustard field, Rajasthan -- Feel glorious -- Do not lean again -- Ne pas. A Scottish four seasons. Spring -- Summer -- Autumn -- Winter. Interlude: seven sonnets. Sixty talks to Eighteen -- Eighteen replies to Sixty -- Forty intervenes, remembers Horace -- Adventure and uncertainty -- It takes a village to raise a child -- King James VI of Scotland reflects on the loss of his only friend when young -- Love unforgotten. Of the animals. Primate cousins -- The gentleness of whales -- Elephants -- Kangaroos -- The dung beetle -- Tortoise -- Cheetah -- Polar bear -- Crocodile -- Lion -- Small, insignificant antelope -- Giraffe, zebra -- Our world, their world. Of love & longing. Love over Scotland -- On clouds over Mull: a love song -- Nocturnal blessing -- Love lost -- On looking at a child. Of books & reading. The goodness of books -- The book becomes -- Moveable type -- What the book is -- On the bedside table -- Remembering Muriel Spark -- Graham Greene -- A maker of beautiful books -- Library of Congress. Places. Greece -- The Oracle at Delphi -- Goodbye to the Ionian -- Scotland -- St. Kilda -- Dear one -- Scotland's claim -- Edinburgh -- A fragile beauty -- The seven hills of Edinburgh -- The Castle Rock -- Craiglockhart Hill, a century ago -- Arthur's seat and geology -- Imagined conversation on Blackford Hill -- Corstophine Hill -- On Calton Hill -- Braid Hills. Unrelated poems. Northland -- Wolves -- The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg -- From a Mumbai Hotel -- Fish, and the thoughts of fish -- Saving an Oak Tree -- Friendship.