Uncategorized

30 December 2020 I’m surrounded, personally if digitally, by medical advice, and advisors: last count, six doctors and a nurse  in the immediate family.  Immediate but not nearby. They are in Glasgow, Northern Ireland, Aberdeen. My wife and I are here in the North Mainland of Shetland (the central island in the archipelago is called…

Welcome to Tom Morton’s Beatcroft by me, Tom Morton. Life in Shetland and Greater Caledonia. Happiness, hazards and the occasional horror. Words and music. Scotland. Island life. Books, records, pictures, guitars. Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue. In the meantime, tell your friends!

….so true.    http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/what-if-we-dinosaurs-are-smartest-people-room   It’s the default leap for every former hack, and one that I’ve taken myself, to an extent, sort of.   Because for me freelance work is all about flexibility. It could mean providing strategic PR advice, writing website copy, editing, subbing, speaking, broadcasting, singing, teaching, fishing, whisky tasting, crisis management,…

This has been a difficult magazine to put together for lots of reasons, but I think in the end it’s a really good read with some fantastic photographs – and the opportunity for you to take some that will perhaps be just as good! Andy Holt from Papa Stour contacted me several weeks ago to…

Deep Fried on the Electric Brae Riding the length and breadth of Scotland The Magnetic Hill I can see the slope, the rising road ahead, threading its way upwards along the coastline. There’s a lurch of disappointment in my stomach. It’s been a hard morning, cold and damp and in company. I’m not good at…

Southernmost! some of the Dundee Fair Traders with  Dave Donaldson. Me at the top of the Redcastle Brae, looking down on Lunan Bay. What a fantastic evening’s riding that was. And Dave just as we emerged from the Dalmeny Estate towards South Queensferry. We just scraped across the bridge before it was closed for Torchification.

Having problems with pictures so they’ll pop up when I get to a proper computer and on Twitter/FB. Stephen from Fairpley, who are handling the logistics for the Mull2Muckle for Scottish Fair Trade Forum, ran me down to the Mull of Galloway from Ayr, where I’d broadcast from. Set off in a smirry rain and…

Scooped a scallop shell off the beach last night, and thought: might as well take it with me! SIR WALTER RALEIGH in Daiphantus, 1604 ; written about 1603. THE PASSIONATE MAN’S PILGRIMAGE. GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon,My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation,My gown…

A quick visit to Cee and Jays and then Tesco to buy waterproof map bags, water bottles, a spur-of-the-moment 2-in-1 bum bag/rucksack, toothpaste, travel clothes washing liquid, Sudocream, Johnson’s Baby talcum, Pampers wipes, Anadin (oh, for Askit Powders…)and doubtless there will be more to add before I head south from Shetland on Wednesday. I’ve all…

(After WM) Without Bicycles Without bicycles, Mao Tse Tung would not have won Even though revolution comes from the barrel of a gun It may also come from sweaty backsides and Sturmey Archer gears On Brooks leather saddles, which need careful breaking in, but will prove rewarding.     If you persevere. For years. In tears.…