Category Archives: Environment

The Blank Coast

Posted on January 5, 2019 by

Retirement is great. It means you can welly off somewhere without having to explain yourself. After half a century of travel, I finally decided to try somewhere I’ve been avoiding all that time: Spain’s holiday coast. Never having been one … Continue reading →

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Drought? It’s a Fecking Desert

Posted on December 11, 2018 by

Say what you like about America but, once Britain had wearied of empire-building, the USA pretty much invented the modern world single-handed. China is a great country now coming into its own. But, like its prosperous Asian neighbours their recent … Continue reading →

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Get Yer Wellies Out

Posted on November 27, 2018 by

Like a spoiled kid in a toy store, President Donald Trump has played with just about every lever of American government available to him. Unlike his moderate predecessors, he has rampaged about, playing fast and loose with immigration laws, trade … Continue reading →

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To End All Wars

Posted on August 12, 2018 by

This week we had another series of news items reminding us of te centenary of yet another WW1 battle—this time the Amiens offensive when the Allies finally had success in breaching German lines on the Western Front and rolling them … Continue reading →

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Our Clowns Are Back

Posted on June 3, 2018 by

SOS Puffin is a volunteer project sponsored by the Scottish Seabird Centre which started in 2007. It aims to bring under control the invasive plant tree mallow which had taken over the islands of Craigleith and Fidra, threatening important populations … Continue reading →

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Republicans Want to Turn the Entire Country into Oklahoma

Posted on February 9, 2018 by

By Paul Waldman  February 8, 2018   © Washington Post We have in this country an essentially unchanging disagreement about what model of governance will produce the best economic and social results. Democrats advocate what we might call weak social democracy: … Continue reading →

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Blowing the Inheritance

Posted on August 18, 2016 by

Edinburgh deserves its status as a World Heritage Site. Its New Town is—along with Bath—the shining example of magnificent Georgian architecture. Its regular streets of coherent facades are interspersed with circles, squares and gardens and gifted with wide views of … Continue reading →

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Trans-Arctic Convoys

Posted on April 2, 2016 by

Once upon a time, the British took the Phoenecian and Viking idea of building a maritime empire to its logical global conclusion. We spent the last two centuries congratulating ourselves on how clever we were to do so. Leave aside … Continue reading →

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Carlekemp: Architectural Gem

Posted on March 10, 2016 by

You can drive down Abbotsford Road in North Berwick and not even know it’s there. Carlekemp, a long, elegant pile of mellow Rattlebags stone, hides in its expansive four acres of grass and trees behind a high wall that retains … Continue reading →

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Rewilding Highland Ecology

Posted on October 14, 2015 by

As a Scot descended in part from Appin Stuarts, I get emotional crossing the Highland Line, feeling the huge flanks of the mountains close around me like a herd of giant cattle and suffusing me with subtle feelings between awe … Continue reading →

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