Page 14 - Blog

As we live beside the beach we are forever seeing those people with their electronic wands searching the ground for valuables and historic artefacts. They call themselves detectorists and they often make a valuable contribution to the nation’s history. And in Peebles one very lucky detectorist found an amazing hoard of Bronze Age treasures from 800- 1,000 BC. The find was a made up of more than 500...

In my last blog I wrote about the old custom of hazel nut burning to determine if you were marrying a wrong’un, but there are many other customs at this time of year.  How about kale pulling? In the old days kale was often thought of as animal feed , but now with its lustrous dark leaves it’s regarded as a super food and many a  doctor will tell you to eat as much of it as you can get down you...

It’s well known that Great Scot Sir Andy Murray is generous of himself, his time and his purse and recently he demonstrated just how generous he is. After his fabulous career in tennis where he might well have been our greatest ever sportsman after winning three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals and a silver, without ever being the best naturally talented player in the world. Now he’s taken...

The Americans are mad about Halloween, but not so much in my family as my son was born on the 31^st October and so he’s had too many Halloween themed parties to be thrilled by the event. But for the rest of us the day is something we always remember from our youth, when we might have called it “Mischief Night”.  But I guess that was just because I was a pretty mischievous child, oops!

Across the...

As you know many great and good things originate in St Andrews and the latest is a discovery in an ancient city in Jordan.

Are you a fan of the movie character Indiana Jones?  Do you remember the scene with the ancient Knight Templar and the Holy Grail? Do you hanker after archaeology finds? Then the ancient remains in Petra, used in that scene, may be your bag. There you will find the majestic Nabataean...

Welcome to the Autumn, the season of Autumn mists and mellow fruitfulness and of course Tartan! The plaid is in fashion and on the way back again, whether it’s on the catwalk or the red carpet, the second most famous of Scotland’s products is on the march. The Princess of Wales is a proud wearer of the weave, she did go to St Andrews University after all, and as everyone knows James Pirie was founded...

If you want to make music from nature would you go the Antarctic and ask to be marooned for the day on a volcanic island with just the penguins for company? One Scottish composer did just that with the Royal Navy and the British Antarctic Survey.  The musician is a native of Edinburgh and he wanted to track in audio and on film the changing nature of the cold continent. I am a big fan of the frozen...

Are you old enough to remember the BBCs Balamory from CBeebies? It’s been a while and it was cancelled back in the balmy days of 2005, before financial crashes, COVID and the wars dominating headlines. Balmory was actually set in Tobermory in Argyll and Bute. It was a pretty dream of a place, all pastels and oddball characters working out complicated, but heart warming problems. Well it’s going to...

After a marvellous playing career Sir Andy Murray the Great Scot retired just a few weeks ago at the Paris Olympics. He went out on a high with Dan Evans, but missed out on the U S Open which finished on Sunday. But the deuce of a questions is, will retirement drive the tennis ace nuts? And the answer  surprisingly is not at all. One nature’s great obsessives  Andy’s found a couple of new obsessions...

Are you happy where you live?

Do you worry that other places are more fun, safer to live in, cheaper, or more fashionable?

Well there are always experts to help you get a fix on how you should feel and they have determined that a Scottish city is the “happiest,”whatever that means, in the whole of the United Kingdom, and that city is Inverness! It scored nearly 8 out of 10 and was a “happier” place...