Page 56 - James Pirie News

Paris Climate Talks Will Affect Scottish Flowers

Noted Scottish Beauties Threatened with Extinction in Country

The threat of rising temperatures, which always seem laughable at this time of year have placed some Scottish flowers at great risk in the coming century. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh predicts species such as clematis will be under threat while other species will flourish as the nation...

Edinburgh Lights Up Despite Smoking Ban

Canopy of Light Delights Shoppers and Tourists

I was recently in Chartres in France on my honeymoon and saw this wonderful light show played against the ancient cathedral and noted buildings in the French town and was delighted when they decided to do similar things in Scotland’s capital city. Now every day until Christmas Eve they have a festival of light that...

The Forth Bridge Closure -  a Near Disaster?

Closed until the New Year

Now the Forth Bridge is closed until the New Year and thousands are facing a long journey cross country to get across this impressive stretch of water. The bridge’s website is full of zero information, but the minister responsible says safety is paramount. Well you’ve only to remember the lines of the deliciously named Sir William...

Speed Bonny Dinosaur over the Sea to Skye

Footprints Found by Dino Hunters

Those clever fellows who study dinosaurs, the palaeontologists, have discovered the tracks of huge dinosaurs that once roamed the coasts of pre-historic Scotland. There was nothing wee about the sauropods that lived 170 million years ago on Skye. These dinosaurs were early relatives of the famous species like diplodocus brontosaurus...

Otter Chaos

Otter Cubs Rescued

This year has been a busy year for the Scottish SPCA’s National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross, Clackmannanshire which has seen fourteen otters in need of rescuing. The latest trio were found on a roadside and at a flooded river bank in Brechin  and are being cared for by animal welfare officers.

Otter the Mouth of Danger

In spite of their difficult start in life...

Spirit of Christmas Draining Away as Children Lose Belief in Santa

Vile Rumour That Father Christmas Isn’t Real

The good folks at some polling organisation or another have quizzed children in the UK and found that kids these days are a horribly doubting lot. It seems that the culprit is the Internet and those naughty people at Google. The search engine was launched some eighteen years ago and since...

Oh No, It’s the Internet at the Speed of Light

Scots Invention Means Internet Goes 100 x Faster, World Dismayed

If you are taking to the World Wide Web slowly, like the rest of us the news that Internet could soon be getting one hundred times faster will not necessarily be putting a spring in your step, unless you are addicted to Candy Crush or playing Call of Duty on line.  This new wheeze is courtesy...

Don’t Get a Turkey This Thanksgiving

Duck and Cover It’s Black Friday

Yes while you are enjoying the plenty of the harvest you’ll have those nagging worries about presents and BLACK FRIDAY. If you are in the USA you will be watching the Football game and beside the players getting blitzed, you will be getting bombarded with messages to buy buy buy! as soon as the turkey and all the trimmings have worn...

The Spectre of Vodka Raised by New Bond Movie

Scotch on the Rocks Shock

Apologies for not commenting on the New James Bond film SPECTRE but I was on my honeymoon in France. Yes even at my age! And the big news from the movie if not the box office is that Bond’s flirtation with Scotch whisky is over for the moment.  He is now getting SMERSHED on Vodka. Which given the film’s tepid reception in the...

Hope for the Haggis

Dreadful Embargo to Be Lifted

Since 1971 our American cousins have been deprived of that most Scottish of delicacies, the Haggis. But secret and not so secret negotiations between Scotland’s Food Secretary and the American Department of Agriculture have made progress. The veritable Haggis called by Robert Burns, ”the Chieftain o’ the pudding race,” is made from lamb products that...