Little Jottings
Swap your Xmas for a New Year!
Published 30 December 2008
EDINBURGH is preparing to welcome in 2009 with its annual Hogmanay street party, considered one of the world’s biggest and best New Year celebrations and billed this year as “the biggest and most full-on we’ve seen”.
Does the clock say it’s 2009 yet?
Published 22 December 2008
AT LAST, Scotland’s in for a bit of homespun Christmas cheer on the telly as two icons of Scottish comedy make their long-awaited return to our small screens over the next few days.
Mark site of the Arkinholm battle
Published 17 December 2008
THE programme on the Douglases in the TV series Clans, which has just ended, reinforced the point Billy Young made that the Battle of Arkinholm should be included in the proposed inventory of Scottish battlefields being considered for publication by Historic Scotland.
A panda walks into a cafe....
Published 26 November 2008
The wealth of berries, which I mentioned in last week’s jottings were providing pre-winter food for the birds, has been attracting feathered visitors from further afield, according to a resident of Whitaside.I was up that way the other day, heading for the quarries and was appalled at the state of the track leading from the end of the concreted path up to the gate onto the hill.The following caption appeared in a national newspaper last week, beneath a photo of signs bearing the words Apple’s and Banana’s:
Fieldfares filled the sky at Whita
Published 19 November 2008
WHENEVER I leave behind my binoculars as I go out hiking, I’m guaranteed to see something of interest; in which case I curse my laziness in not carrying them.
Composer was Scotland’s best
Published 12 November 2008
YESTERDAY was the 50th anniversary of the death in a Glasgow hospital of a former Langholm Academy teacher and organist at North UF church.
Ups and downs of place names
Published 6 November 2008
YOU might have been forgiven for thinking last week that you were in the middle of December and not the last week in October, what with the persistent icy blasts from the north, the sight of a snow plough coming down Langholm High Street and the presence of the Christmas lights.
Truly delightful visit to Turkey
Published 30 October 2008
I’M OFTEN asked why I don’t take a holiday in my own country. Why am I always travelling abroad? Well, that question was well and truly answered last week when I exchanged the torrential rain of Langholm for the warm sunshine of Turkey.
Why don’t we say a grocer groces?
Published 22 October 2008
THEY do say English is a very difficult language to learn if you’re starting it from scratch.
Does poem sound better in Scots?
Published 15 October 2008
THE Christmas catalogues have already started to come in and I’m faced with thoughts of winter while still waiting for the summer.
Get it’s right!
Published 8 October 2008
A NEW series of programmes about Scotland’s clans kicked off this week with a look at the Armstrongs.
Border Scots not returning here...
Published 1 October 2008
AND it’s back to our normal summer weather of wind and rain but at least we’d last week’s spell of dry and at times sunny weather to remind us of what summer can be like.
We’re ready for the big screen
Published 24 September 2008
I COULDN’T believe what I was hearing last Thursday when I was at Hawick to hear the musicians on The Young Trad Tour ’08.
Walk the waulk
Published 17 September 2008
THIS week I start with an apology. I stand corrected on two points. Firstly, I wrote to say that the painting of Langholm Common Riding by Trinidad-born artist John Stone was “hidden away in the attic” of Langholm library.
Mystery of the painting solved
Published 11 September 2008
THE mystery of the painting I wrote about last week has been solved after a phone call from Margaret Hall, one of a small band of volunteers who man the Langholm Library during its opening hours.
Right restaurant wrong country
Published 3 September 2008
SEVERAL national newspapers have latched onto a story which appeared in the E&L last week.
Scots top the table for smiles
Published 27 August 2008
A FEW months ago in the E&L Stuart Tedham wrote a history of the silent films in Langholm.
Right guid apart from the herrin’
Published 13 August 2008
LAST week Hawick’s local paper had an article on this year’s Langholm Common Riding.
Drinkers go full steam to the bar
Published 6 August 2008
I’VE often wondered how the term “steamin” came to mean “drunk”. I certainly didn’t envisage finding out through visiting an art gallery in Edinburgh at the weekend.
Common Riding one of the best
Published 30 July 2008
STARTING off the jottings after the Common Riding of 1948 were these words: “Appropriately enough the first jotting should be a vote of thanks to the clerk of the weather for such a marvellous day.”
