Whippet Wisdom – a Highland Journey – A journey through the seasons with adopted whippets, a poet and a camera

Welcome to Whippet Wisdom.

My husband and I have adopted six cats and seven dogs from animal shelters over the last 34 years. Our whippets Eivor (2010-2022) and Pearl (2011-2022) were the loving hounds who inspired the creation of this blog.

They both crossed the rainbow bridge in May 2022 and the blog will remain here as a tribute to them and all that they taught us.

In June 2022 we welcomed Misty (2010-2023) into our home as a Forever Foster for greyhound rehoming charity Give a Greyhound a Home. She was a sweet, twelve-year old whippet who had joined us for her twilight years. She crossed the rainbow bridge late November 2023 and this blog will remain as a tribute to the special time we shared with her too.

What you find here is a creative and meditative journey through prose, poetry and photographs about love, nature and new ways of growing and learning together.

The photographs are taken during our walks along the beaches, inside the glens and forests and along the mountain trails of the Scottish Highlands, a place we feel very blessed to call home.

The majority of poems are a modern take on the ancient Japanese poetry forms of haibun, haiku and tanka and occasionally I publish other poetry forms too. Some of these were first published in online journals, print journals and anthologies and a few poems have been anthologised after first appearing on this blog.

It is a great honour to share haiku and photo-haiku in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 World Haiku Series with Japanese translations by Mr Hidenori Hiruta of the Akita International Haiku Network.

Our sister blog is called Tranature – quiet moments in nature. It was created in April 2018 to share some of my wildlife, flower and nature photography and poetic musings. This blog features haiku, haibun, tanka and tanka prose first published in international haiku and tanka journals, alongside new photographs and writings.

We publish full-length collections of our poems and photographs in aid of good causes.

Our first collection Sharing our Horizon – A Journey Through the Scottish Highlands with Two Adopted Whippets’ was published in September 2018 in aid of animal rehoming charities. The book is available in paperback, ebook and Kindle editions.

front cover of Sharing our Horizon, a book by Xenia Tran

Please scan the QR Code below for a peek inside, video, reviews and shop-links for Sharing Our Horizon:

Our second collection Between Heather and Grass – Poems and Photographs Filled with Love, Hope and Whippets was published in October 2019 and is now available in paperback, ebook and Kindle editions. We are donating thirty per cent of any net profit from the sale of this book to a children’s cancer charity in memory of our nephew Jamie Baker and another thirty per cent of net profit to animal rehoming charities in memory of Flynn, Fergal, Seamus and Ruby.