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A wee walk before breakfast. Beautiful spring morning in the west end. Manfully resisting the blandishments of The North Star, sustenance was acquired from home-made porridge (with raisins and salt). Plus lashings of Canderel. Interesting psephological fact: On a walk from Hillhead Underground to the shops at Queen Margaret Drive, I saw one Labour window…

Here is a description of and rules for extreme bog-golf at The Gowcroft, Gateside, Shetland: ‘Extreme bog-golf’ is played on uncultivated ‘in-by’ croft land at The Gowfcroft, Gateside, Shetland. Please note, this land is very wet and peaty, and is unsuitable for golf carts, golf shoes, tractors or heavy earthmoving equipment. A tractor disappeared here…

I’ve been examining our ‘forest’. No, not the old, mighty and massive trees you can see here, but the woodland planted on the croft three years ago and still at the marginal-might-or-might-not-make-it wee-tiny-stick stage. You can see a wee totie example in the foreground. Hundreds of native species – mostly willow – have gone in,…

Quite surprisingly moved by the emotional clout of Cadillac Records, currently showing on Sky Premiere. Great cast: Jeffery Wright (Felix Leiter in Quantum of Solace) superb as Muddy Waters; Mos Def convinces as Chuck Berry, and as for Beyonce Knowles…eat your heart out, Amy Winehouse! Really good film. Music, as Sam Philips said of Howlin’…

Shetland this morning – it’s very fine, like the softest, greyest talcum powder. Must remember not to breathe…

OK, so Marvel’s comic book application for the iPad plays to the simplest strengths of both formats, but surely this is the way ahead for the dead tree industries? I mean, yes, we now expect free content online…but for the convenience of having your daily newspaper/monthly mag downloaded, in full, to your mobile device, complete…

I was, I admit, somewhat miffed to find the commissioned 700 swashbuckling words (written whilst on holiday in Mallorca, he said, playing the sympathy card) devoid of either swash or buckle and cut to 400…so here’s the original, if anyone’s interested: What’s it all about, Alfeeee? Oh, how the foghorn tones of Cilla Black, a…

I was telephoned a couple of weeks ago by professional angler Leon, who,during a fishing trip on the west side of Shetland, had come across otters behaving rather oddly. It was his opinion that the otter population had boomed, and so these secretive and shy creatures were much more in evidence than normal. But to…

It sounds a bit like….it sounds very like…good grief, that reminds me of… In my business, and at my advanced age, shiny, squeaky new pop music inevitably pushes the memory button all too often. Laura Marling’s Devil’s Spoke is a great wee record, but the verses are Bob dylan’s It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,…

Joe West is little known in this country – but he’s in the fine tradition of eccentric, intellectual art-Americana, as pioneered by the likes of Terry Allen. James and I toured with him four years ago and had a fine time, though that was the trip during which James dropped his double bass down a…