March 2008

  • Geocaching on the Ness of Hillswick

    James, Martha and myself took advantage of the breezy brightness to go and check the Geocache we look after – Another Fine Ness, it’s called, if you’re into Global Positioning as it relates to treasure hunting.Imagine our astonishment to find that the cache had been visited in the dreadful weather of last Sunday (it’s an…

  • A morning at Eshaness

    Took Lulu the St Bernard out for a walk this morning up at the Eshaness cliffs. Ronnie was out checking his creels – that’s his boat – and while it was glorious to the west (Foula can be seen, glinting in the distance) more snow showers were coming in from the north, and Ronnie was…

  • Blue skies and the tale of Logan Mountstuart

    The snow won’t let go. But gradually, in the face of inexorable spring, it is loosening its grip.The Radiocroft is not looking its best at the moment. I’m toying with the idea of painting it country-cottage white, but I quite like the way it half-merges with the ground around it. Which sounds, I fear, a…

  • How are the mighty (nearly) fallen! Toyotas, horses and Citroens in the snow

    Yesterday’s weather deteriorated during the programme until, at 4.00pm, I received a call from Susan to say she was stuck on what is known locally as ‘The Footpath’ – not a footpath at all but a steep road between Ollaberry and Ronas Voe. This despite her super-tough Landcruiser 4X4, which suffered the ignominy of being…

  • Winter at The Radiocroft. In spring.

    Easter Monday, and it’s not just snowy, it’s bitterly cold and very windy too. Still, so far the power’s on and all the digital gubbins is working, so I’m fit to broadcast. Have to go into Lerwick later anyway, to pick up Magnus – he’s flying north for the week from Glasgow – but if…

  • Easter Sunday snow in Hillswick

    Happy Easter!Time to light the Rayburn and retreat indoors, methinks…

  • Walk into winter

    Back home on a rather bumpy flight last night, with the weather deteriorating into a brutal cacophony of howling gusts by about 4.00am. Also snow, hail and sleet, now with the occasional outburst of sunshine. This is the view from behind The Radiocroft, looking up to Shetland’s highest point, Ronas Hill. So far, all the…

  • The blood taxis of Gartnavel

    Why, I asked the taxi driver, was there always a wee flock of black cabs parked up behind the Pond Hotel, next to Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow? “Those are the Blood Taxis” he said. Seems the blood bank at Gartnavel provides emergency blood supplies for much of southern Scotland, and the favoured mode of transport…

  • Green on Red: pedestrians and cyclists manage not to kill each other shock

    This is the bridge from Finnieston (Minerva Street) over the Clydeside Expressway and the railway to the SECC and thence over the river to the BBC. The red bit is supposed to be for walkers, the green bit for bikes. Pedestrians ALWAYS ignore the painted bicycles and appear shocked that they have to get out…

  • Vertigo in Pacific Quay

    Looking down at the River Clyde from the third floor of the BBC building at Pacific Quay is a vertigenous business. Looking over the river towards the university (my alma mater: that’s it with the rocket-like gothic spire) is fairly disturbing, in that such a view would have been impossible back in 1973, when I…