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Many of the building materials used in conventional housing are far from being ecologically sound, imported rain forest timber, hardwoods ripped out of our diminishing forests and the fuel.energy costs associated with their transport and purchase is highly...
Dundee and how they got the Victorian and Albert Museum. One of the most interesting aspects of the V&A in Dundee (apart from the spectacular - paid for - exhibitions) is the origin of the story. The V&A didn't approach Dundee council with the idea for...
Running round the park Honestly the best community initiative of the last fifteen years. It's fantastic as a community event, gets people exercising and makes a real difference. I love it. I got a massive buzz on my first parkrun. I'd never done anything...
I love my garden best in autumn. I neglect all the tidying up chores and cast my eyes up to the trees and the ever changing beautiful leaf colours. Love to see the wind sending a golden blizzard of leaves across the neglected grass and the fungi growing...
A huge floating device designed by Dutch scientists to clean up an island of rubbish in the Pacific ocean that is three times the size of France has successfully picked up plastic from the high-seas for the first time. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch....
Tea bags are destroying the world Those nylon tea bags are leeching billions of microplastics into every single cup of tea and then those plastics enter into the sea and into the oceans to be eaten by the fish. tea bags are actually flooding every one...
Scotland gave the world theories/mathematical formulae on electromagnetism, modern day philosophies on capitalism, the steam engine, the television, the telephone, the bike, penicillin discoveries, anaesthetics, the first cloned mammal, the decimal point...
Pockets having them or nor is often a class identificator Women who work wear pinafores have with pockets on them, or aprons. Men who work wear overalls and tool belts have pockets on them. The further away from manual labour you get the less pockets...
Bains des Paquis in Geneva, a beautiful renovated 1932 lido jutting out into the lake, in the summer it's the coolest beach, and in the winter a magical spa, with sauna, hammam and Turkish baths, the plunge pool being the lake. Oh and one of the most...
The chestnut tree The chestnut is the most useful tree in the world. There are 4 major species – American Chestnut (Castanea dentata), European Chestnut (C. sativa), Chinese Chestnut (C. mollissima) and Japanese Chestnut (C. crenata) and 9 less important...
Here in Oban today is a World Championship The World Stone Skimming Championships were started in 1983 by Bertie Baker , and then lay fallow until they were resurrected in 1997 by Eilean Eisdeal (The Easdale Island Community Development Group) as a fundraising...
Pulsatilla, Sanguisorba, Wild Strawberry and Ivy are all UK natives. Blue Chicory is probably a native too. If not, it's certainly been growing in the UK since before the Romans were here. Even if they were non native botanically, it's possible to source...
Instead Of Shouting… No matter how frustrated you may get with your students, yelling should never be an option. Although it often works in the moment, the cost of gaining momentary control is much too high. So instead of being that teacher, the one with...
Nothing that can't make a great fish stock. The best I ever made was the result of an accidental flourish with a flounder. Went to the fish shop for a warehou to hot-smoke whole, but they didn't have any, so went home with a large flounder. It was too...
Saying nothing to be perceived as educated Everyone wants to sound fluent. Hesitating, even for as little as 300 milliseconds, can change how your audience perceives you – and in a surprisingly positive way. Being silent or having a pause is judged more...
Saying nothing to be perceived as educated Everyone wants to sound fluent. Hesitating, even for as little as 300 milliseconds, can change how your audience perceives you – and in a surprisingly positive way. Being silent or having a pause is judged more...
As someone who has been a massive fan of the Pantomime genre because of the cheeky humour, hilarious innuendo and the use of coded language it has been terrific entertainment but I fear we are about to witness its tragic demise. If ever there was a natural...
James Scott Skinner (1843-1927) became one of the outstanding Scottish fiddle players and composers of his day. He began playing fiddle by ear as a boy but then was offered classical tuition. His technique developed and he became one of the outstanding...
Like all seasons, Autumn is fantastic when the sun is out and a dreary colourless misery of wet leaves and mud when it's raining. Absolutely magic in New England where it's still t-shirt weather for most of the season. Not so great on a cold wet day in...
Imagine: it is New Year’s Eve. You are a small Welsh child. You hear a knock on the door. You open it. Looming over you is a creature with a horse’s skull, wearing a long, billowing cloak and trailed by people chanting. In the horse’s eye cavities are...
Most social interaction is about manipulation to a certain extent, or at least manipulating the conversation to be able to create the glue that serves to bind people socially: making people feel understood. In pretty much all situations, whether it's...
public polls drive the direction of the debate and where the support will go as much if not more than reporting it, and particularly now when polls are becoming so frequent and so ubiquitous. It is also ironic that this is at a time when the polls themselves...
Silence is so wonderful - understated - beautiful Silence still has the upper hand. It is when nothing is said and my friend and I are, for example, walking side by side, that I can best detect something of the true nature of his regard. I don’t mean...
When I'm building a door I'm looking for a nice visual progression from a wide bottom rail, to a wide midrail, and the toprail around the same width as the stiles. Often you see a door with a bottom rail that is quite narrow in width, cut down at some...
In the USA, in the late 1800s and in the early 1900s, there were large German-speaking parts of, I believe, Minneapolis and its environs, perhaps in and around Chicago, but certainly in Minnesota. But are they there anymore? Did all these immigrants eventually...
