April 2005

  • How to make an anchor: it’s been an amazing weekend in the People’s Republic of Hillswick: My neighbour, blacksmith Bruce Wilcock, has masterminded the hand-forging of a full-size naval anchor, using Victorian technology. The local Amenity Trust paid for three top Yorkshire blacksmiths to come to Shetland, and with Bruce and a local Shetland smith,…

  • Mountains in Shetland…and politics for pets

    This is the current Nippy Sweetie, for some reason(!) unavailable on the Shetland Times website… I know the Labour candidate likes dogs, because he was in our house the other day, and gave Quoyle the (now rather stinky) black Labrador a cuddle. And the cat. I did not allow him to cuddle me. The Great…

  • The glory that is Center Parcs…or at least, the food.We went to the Lake District for our (late) Easter holidays, and I rediscovered the wonders of Keswick and Derwentwater (every childhood Easter holiday, I was taken there). We stayed at the Oasis Center Parcs complex near Penrith, which is, on the whole, excellent in a…

  • Meet Lunch, Dinner and Omelette. One goose and two ganders. Not that we knew they were ganders when they arrived. Lunch and Dinner have only been joined by Omelette recently, and seem a bit bamboozled by female company, to be honest, preferring to strut and posture, intimidate the hens and screech at every passing car.…

  • Back fae Grangemouth

    Grangemouth is a wee bit like a neat, cleaned-up, early-seventies version of the steeltown that forms the backdrop to the first half of The Deerhunter. The (formerly) BP chemical plant and refinery doesn’t so much overhang the place as occupy a great chunk of it. And at night it is truly spectacular. I’m astonished it…