Page 38 - James Pirie News

First Piper Travels the World –

Wherever You Are Don’t Forget June 18^th

 When I read about the laddie trying to pipe in every country in the world I was rather excited and thought I should find out more about it. As avid readers of this blog know I am more than fond of a bit of piping, even to the point of listening to a  the US heavy metal rock band called Korn who incorporate the pipes into their...

Scottish Bluebells Are Under Threat –

But Spanish Not Really to Blame

True Scottish bluebells are on the verge of extinction and with that demise will go the blue woodland carpets of flowers that we see in late spring with it the seas of blue which carpet British woodlands in spring. This led to a serious investigation into the dangers facing the woodland by scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh...

Free Spirits –

Well That’s the Last Thing on the Government’s Mind

The winds of change are blowing around the UK and for the first time tax revenues from the sales of spirits have overtaken those from beer. And the great winner of new trends is gin which has achieved record sales says HM Revenue & Customs. Last year was full of cheer for gin makers as we gulped down 12% more gin while the monies raised...

Row Over Display of Viking Treasure-

Detectorists Trove Now Source of Controversy

Avid readers of this blog will know, particularly as it’s the last writte, I have already written about the huge Viking hoard discovered by a history mad detectorist with his metal detector in Dumfries and Galloway and that I pointed out a row may be brewing about where to exhibit the trove, well the expected brouhaha...

No Flash in the pan

One of Scotland’ Best Loved and Rudest Cat to Retire

It was never a purrfect service at Lochinver Post Office, but it was a familiar one which gives the locals paws for thought. Flash the cat who has been showing his bottom to locals for the past 22 years is about to retire. This likeably grumpy top cat likes to sit on the counter at the post office, but only with his back to the...

Carnegie’s Home Town Gets a Lift –

When Great Scots Abounded

The time when Scots migrants helped shape the New World is becoming a bit of a distant memory, well it is if you don’t count Donald Trump’s Scottish mother in this, a time when Scots like Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Alan Pinkerton invented the detective agency and Andrew Carnegie was a colossus in business. Did you know...

Father’s Day Blues –

Beer Going Up in Price and How to Choose a Pressie

Now if the man in your life likes a beer then he may be in for a nasty surprise as the price of hops is rocketing and craft beers in particular are set for steep price rises. If he’s a craft beer lover the ingredients needed to please his taste buds are imported from the US, where prices of hops have soared by a whopping 60 per...

A Northern Light Called Steve –

Citizen Scientists Will Get Boost in Shetland

The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis are one of the great sights in the far north and I have always been fascinated by them. Indeed I remember in my French oral at school burbling on about des lumiers du nord, which is probably very poor French and I was rewarded with a fail. Just recently citizen scientists in Canada have...

Treasure Trove of Our Forefathers–

At the Third Beep You Have found £2 million

An amateur historian from Ayrshire had had a windfall of nearly £2 million after finding a 9^th century Viking hoard.  This was after first discovering a Viking arm ring, one of those decorative jobbies denoting status as a warrior.  This was a mere precursor to the absolute hoard he later found. The beeping of his metal...

Orkney Ring Saga-

No Hobbits Involved

An Orkney couple have had a lucky find. The husband, poor soul, had lost his wedding ring walking on the beachand was distraught. He’s a keen dog walker and walks all over Orkney and he was definitely in the dog house with losing it, but he wasn’t there for long. It was two long months before he could bring himself to confess to the missus that he’d lost the ring...