Page 13 - Blog

I had a bunch of logs delivered today and it was a considerable bit more than last year. And last year was even worse with an extra £25 on a small wagon load. It’s been a dear do all round with a trip to the supermarket requiring tranquilizers in the recent past. But here at James Pirie, rather than putting prices up we have been squeezing them down.  Yes down, not up

We were founded in 1890 and...

I don’t know about you, but I’m sitting in my office and cold. The sea outside is a decided gunmetal grey and the air hangs heavy with moisture and the threat of strong winds and storms at the weekend.  I could do with something to smile about. The winds are so strong nowadays that I’ve put up angled supports for the fences and hidden them behind foliage as I’m tired of replacing fence panels...

Well I hope you are enjoying the St Andrew’s Day bank holiday and have you fingers hovering over the computer or phone screen.  It’s also Cyber Monday which is the digital extension of Black Friday and as we are in the business of making people happy we have extended our Black Friday offers with as much as 70% off our already keen prices.  After our Gold Star weekend we have carried on those lovely...

Yes dear readers we have a cavalcade of bargains and reductions to thrill your bank manager and delight the gift giver  and receiver everywhere.  And we have a new concept for you THE GOLD STAR! We all know that’s good because my primary teacher used to hand them out very irregularly for spectacular work.I don't like to brag but I had a few!

NOW

There is up to 70% off many of the items in the sale...

As you might know all blog writers are very partial to a survey, because it allows them a bit of wind under their writing wings and a chance to poke fun at surveys. However, sometimes one comes along that suggests something pretty big. And in the week that Typhoo tea filed for protection in insolvency comes the news that Gin and Tonics have overtaken tea as the nation’s favourite drink. The survey...

Once the glens rang to the sound of some wild and  pretty hefty cattle called aurochs a breed of fearsome giants that were the ancestor of our modern cows and bulls. Now with the trend for re-wilding and even bringing species back from extinction it’s sort of going to happen to the auroch. Did you know there are plans to bring back dodos from DNA samples and woolly mammoths too, it’s a wild west...

Are you fond of a bit of seafood? I must admit that I am a late adopter of the fruits of the sea, but now I love them, but in moderation of course as they tend to be a bit dear. Last year we went to France and as part of the trip there was a stop-over in Dieppe and the highlight was a restaurant on a desolate dock road called the Comptoir A Huitres or the Oyster Counter. I have to tell you it was...

This Black Friday we give a nod to the greatness of the national treasure that is whisky, which is one of the nation’s biggest exports. Last year Scotland exported over £5.6 billion worth of Scotch, which makes the nectar the world's top-selling spirit. Now on Barra in the Outer Hebrides they are taking advantage of this world wide liking of the spirit and opening a big new £12 million distillery which...

“I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree” Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

What a thought that is and I can say I am a huge fan of beautiful trees and when me and the missus go to those big gardens I always come back with a myriad photos of trees. Especially if the trees are champion trees, which means they are the largest specimen of the genus in the nation. Every year the powers that be in...

One of the great problems of the modern age is rubbish, trash, garbage or anything else you call it and what we do with it. There was a scandal a while back about plastic waste being shipped off to the third world and there being burnt. And one of the biggest culprits is fashion. The fashion industry produces 92 million tonnes of textile waste each year, most of which ends up in landfills. And if you...