Monthly Archives: February 2018

  1. Sudden Stratospheric Warming – Another Bout of Log Splitting Ahoy

    Sudden Stratospheric Warming –

    Another Bout of Log Splitting Ahoy

    It seems tha we haven’t escaped the worst of the winter and not by a long shot. The forecasters expect more snow could be on the way with more extreme weather and a longer winter. The boys and girls at the Met Office say an atmospheric event is taking place known as a Sudden Stratospheric Warming. I can feel the chill of the phrase from here and it could mean weeks of cold weather ahead.  

    Baby It’s Cold Outside

    So what is sudden stratospheric warming you might ask between chattering teeth and soaring heating bills. Well it is temperatures in the stratosphere – the layer of atmosphere reaching more than 30 miles above the Earth’s surface – rising to 50C.  Jings! It’s happened before and brought cold weather to the UK the polar jet stream weakens bringing weather across the Atlantic from Canada and

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  2. Some Forget Bricks and Mortar and Invest in Scotch- Rare Whiskies Values Soaring

    Some Forget Bricks and Mortar  and Invest in Scotch-

    Rare Whiskies Values Soaring

    Well I’m never going to get rich from hoarding my meagre supplies of fine Scotch, but some investors are paying top dollar for rare examples of the fine amber drink. The most the most expensive bottle sold in 2017 was a 62-year-old Dalmore, which went for £95,000. A Macallan sold for £65,000 and a Bowmore for £61,000 as nearly 90,000 bottles of whisky were auctioned in the year a huge rise from the previous year or some 43%. The average price for auctioned whisky has gone to a few pennies under £300 a bottle. That all adds up to a market valued at over £25 million.

    Demand Outstrips Supply

    Even though the kind of returns made by fine whisky, 27%  a year,  are much better than those made by more conventional forms of investment they are not for the faint hearted or shallow pocketed. They

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  3. Scotland Leaps Ahead of Swedes – Making World’s Strongest Gin

    Scotland Leaps Ahead of Swedes –

    Making World’s Strongest Gin

    Well for years I didn’t hear anything about gin, it was always Scotch, the pride of Scotland, but now everyone is inundated with the latest on trend drink – GIN! A distillery based in Banchory has made a limited edition gin that is a whacking 77% abv. That’s nearly twice as strong as ordinary gin and Scotch.

    Strange Brew

    The limited edition has 101 bottles of the potent brew. They distillers make their own native spirit with a base spirit that is produced out with Scotland and then redistilled with the necessary botanicals for the taste.  For other producers the final product may not be truly Scottish, but with the boys at Banchory  is the real deal and a totally authentically Scottish craft gin. Previously the world’s strongest gin was produced by Swedes and weighed in at abv 76%. It was originally intended

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  4. What Are you Waiting for?

    St Valentine’s Day-

    Last Chance

    Well what are you waiting for! Splash the cash with confidence!

     https://www.jamespirie.com/occasions/valentine-s-day-gifts.html

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  5. A Right Royal Brew- St Valentine’s Ideas

    A Right Royal Brew- St Valentine’s Ideas

    First Scotch from Annandale for 100Years

    After nearly a century of neglect the Annandale Whisky Distillery is back in business and the first bottles have been drawn. The brewery as you will recall was closed by Johnny Walker in 1919, but such is the interest in Scotch worldwide that after a multi-million investment whisky is on the go go there again.  (Sorry for my Whisky A Go Go joke).

    Robert the Bruce Tribute

    Named in tribute to Robert the Bruce the peated ‘Man o’ Swords’ is the first whisky to be drawn.  It is in the same  brand stable as the unpeated ‘Man o’ Words’ whisky, which is a tribute to Robert Burns. The distillery is near Annan.  And there whisky distillation isn’t new to Dumfriesshire. In the latter part of the 19th Century, three distilleries were producing locally. They took advantage of the

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  6. Scottish Charity Leads the Way- Sound Ideas Make Life Easier

    Scottish Charity Leads the Way-

    Sound Ideas Make Life Easier

    A family trust running an Aberdeen-based charity has made life a lot better for Rwandan tea farmers and Tanzanian tea factory workers. The charity wants to make life sustainable for 16,000 smallholder farmers. The family trust was established in 2007 and has so far distributed £142 million to charitable causes. The Foundation has been working in east Africa since 2012 and has seen rural lives transformed, with some 60,000 small farmers seeing their income trebled.

    Fair Trade

    This intervention by the venture charity has helped to end the exploitation of tea growers by large tea companies. The small farmers were producing the family food crop to feed the farm family and the tea was the cash crop for everything else. Under the old system they could not save, plan ahead or deal with emergencies.  Now the 6,000 farmers in southern Rwanda will supply

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  7. February Already – St Valentine’s Day is Upon Us

    February Already –

    St Valentine’s Day is Upon Us

    I swear I don’t know where January went! Okay I did have eye surgery and am still somewhat restricted in what I can do, no lifting heavy loads, no dusty environments and so forth, but I am still shocked it’s February. And that is a big month, not only does the wife have her birthday in the second week, but on the 14th it is the one day you can’t forget, St Valentine’s Day.

    A Website of Many Colours

    Now since I’ve had the eye op, next one tomorrow I have to say that the colours on the James Pirie website look so dramatically changed. What I thought was good was in fact spectacular, the photography I thought was decent was very very good. Well you live and learn. But if you forget St Valentine’s Day it won’t do you much good, so I’m busy myself trawling for ideas and for something that says ‘I

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