Page 29 - James Pirie News

Single Malt Breaks the Record Price

I have this fantasy about investing in Scotch. You know, in the cold of a winter evening I’ll sit in front of the log burner with a fine glass and a dram of single malt warning in the palm of my hand and dream of owning rare Scotch. But for one lucky punter in Asia it has stopped being a pipe dream and they put a very large sum of money where his or her mouth is...

Good News! A Boon to Travellers and Lovely Personalisations to Be Had

Take a gander at the picture above and you’ll see it’s from this year and a trip on the ferry after a monumental drive to the channel. We crossed from Newhaven to Dieppe, it’s a four hour journey so it allows you to recover from the pedal pushing of driving and horrible, nasty motorway food. The crew are French, so their fare is...

Is that a Hurchin on Barra Clara?

The picture is of Gilly the Guillemot who my friend Jon and I found on our beach and tried to rescue. I didn’t have any pictures of ground nesting birds, so thought you’d like one of Gilly. She was being harassed by gulls and crows when we found her, so we whisked her off to the vet to see if she could be saved, but although she survived the night she’d lost too...

Can a Lobster Change its Spots?

Regular readers will know that I live on the coast and as such enjoy what used to be called the ‘bounty of the sea,’ though my son isn’t sure that a coconut and chocolate bar is the right idea to convey heaving masses of fish practically throwing themselves onto your plate. Indeed it was said in the 19^th century that you could practically walk on the sea near Newfoundland...

Who Knew about Ratafia Champagne?

Been a while crocodile! It certainly has been a while, but very recently we were on holiday in Champagne and discovered Ratafia de Champagne, which is made from the third pressing of those heavenly grapes and it turns out it is utterly delicious. It’s made in a similar way to sherry, but it tastes wonderful and can be drunk as an aperitif or as a chaser to the meal...

Father’s Day- A Show of Taste

Back again! This time it’s to talk about some of the trials and tribulations of the modern world. It started a couple of years ago, just after they lifted one of the multifarious lock-downs . You might remember that I’m potty about tennis and Scotland’s own, Sir Andy Murray. Well I managed to get some tickets for a match with him playing on grass, and being careful with...

How to Save Money

Well, well it’s a time when we are all talking about the cost of living and we at home are taking a few steps to save a few bob with next winter in mind and of course while the fleeting entity we call summer is here. We have already bought in the logs for next winter as log man Sandy tells us he’ll be upping the prices in the autumn, even though he bought the next two years worth...

And Now for Something Stoatally Different

New Zealand Dog to End the Menace of Stoats

Some visitors are unwelcome and some visitors are downright hooligans. The latter applies to the stoats on Orkney as they have ravaged the local seabird population. Stoats are a member of the weasel family and they were first recorded on Orkney in 2010. They are a menace to wildlife, particularly the Orkney vole...

Are You In with the Gin Crowd? –

Gin Is It, At Least for Some

Well we’ve just had World Gin Day, don’t ask me how I missed it, but there it was on  the second Saturday of June which has been  officially designated World Gin Day and has been since 2008. By jings I am behind the times. And Scottish gin is set, so the trending graphs say, to outsell our native tipple and national pride, whisky by...

Glasgow Queen Street –

Most Widely Disliked in UK

The Nation’s Least Favourite is Glasgow’s Queen Street Station and looks like a bomb has hit it and in a survey it has come top of the bottom,  as it is the UK’s least liked railway station.  We all hope for a bit of glamour when we travel, even if we can’t afford to turn left on the airplane,  or don’t have a chauffeur to open the doors and whisk...