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Beiträge, die mit scotland getaggt sind


Many people have told me how they like to read the opening few paragraphs of books before buying.

So, here is the opening to mine, 'Drystone - A Life Rebuilt' which will be available for pre-order early 2025 and then released in August.

I'm a first time author, so shares mean a lot and I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

#Writing #NatureWriting #Books #Bookstodon #Scotland #Caithness #Bookworm #Reading
I was eight years old when our mum moved us from one end of Scotland to the other. From Jedburgh, where you cross the border to England, to Thurso, where you catch the boat to Orkney. I don’t know what mum saw in Caithness, but I suspect it was just as far as she could go without leaving the country. 

Caithness is flat and vast and lies prostrate to a wind pushed inland by the thuggish North Sea. A wind that reminds anything attempting to grow that it should perhaps reconsider. On the heaths and moors, plants have no choice but to stay close to the ground and each other. Even in July, when the rest of Scotland is dressed by the full flair of summer, the Flow Country is understated. Thriving in the nutrient-poor soil, bog asphodel, myrtle and bean hide among heather and peat. In the skies above these rare blanket bogs, golden plover and greenshank float silently on warm air and mottled wings. On the coast, the sandstone shark fins of Duncansby Stacks ward off all but the most determined travellers. The Borders are Scotland at its most pastoral, but Caithness akin to a moonscape.

I had never seen anything like it. On either side of a road, cutting long and straight through an expansive moorland, people stood in smoke and flames, soft-edged silhouettes as they beat the ground around them with huge paddles. Muirburn, the controlled burning of heather. It felt ancient, apocalyptic. 

Last paragraph missing as no room for all the text.


the moon was still visible at 11am or i'm a chemtrails nonce. #sky #moon #photography #scotland
tops of rugged hills reach for a blue sky with just a few wispy watercolour clouds pushing into the frame from the right, seemingly indicating the presence of a half-moon.


#til that another nice thing about living in scotland is that scotrail offers free travel to job interviews for people looking for work - & THEN, when a job is secured, a month's worth of travel to get back & forth. that's pretty cool. yay, #scotland!
next, do free public transport for all. :)
#trains #publicTransport #travel
https://www.scotrail.co.uk/commuter/jobcentre-plus-travel-discount-card-scheme


Snow showers overnight and into the morning. On the Isle of Skye today #IsleOfSkye #Scotland
An image of snowy landscape and snow covered mountains in the distance. Isle of Skye, Scotland
An image of a ruined house on a snowy moor with dark skies behind. Isle of Skye, Scotland


Does anyone really believe that #Starmer would allow #ScottishLabour to reintroduce the #WinterFuelAllowance in #Scotland? There would be uproar in England if he didn't do the same.

Pish!

BBC News: Sarwar pledges to expand winter fuel payment

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70452jj21ro


Spiritual Solace

https://justin-farrimond.pixels.com/featured/spiritual-solace-justin-farrimond.html

When this hectic and often cruel world of ours gets too much you need to take yourself away. This is St Oran's Chapel on the Isle of Iona, Scotland. I took this shot here in the cemetery looking north on a breezy summer's day. Here, on the island, you feel adrift but protected from all that 21st century life assails you with. True spiritual solace.

#PhotoOfTheDay #History #Photography #BelieveInFilm #Monochrome #Vintage #BnW #FilmPhotography #Scotland
Grainy black and white film photograph showing an old stone chapel seen from within a graveyard.


Personal interest. I know the person resuscitated while working on an AV project at Holyrood. The commendable (and of course lucky) intervention of the MSP/GP is very welcome, but the BBC are obsessed with attaching an ‘interest.

BTW - defibs actually talk you through the process - I have used one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5mr7292plo.amp

When someone pointed it out to him, he suggested that he should compete for ‘Strictly Come Dying’. Maintains a sense of humour anyway.

#BBC #DesperateHeadlines #Scotland


The ‘culture war’ is no such thing, it is just another wedge being inserted and hammered home by those who dislike people uniting for their families, communities and themselves.

For gods sake, even insurance companies have noticed the improvements in accident claims and the stats that demonstrate fewer injuries before we look at the benefits of more social roads talk to this.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/18/wales-20mph-speed-limit-lives-money-policy

#cycling #walking #speedLimits #Wales #Scotland #traffic #ToryHypocricy


My review of bassist Ali Watson's new album (out week after next).

tl:dr I love it. Wonderful music!

I'm really looking forward to the album launch gig at the Traverse on 25/11.

#Jazz #music #Scotland #Edinburgh

https://ukjazznews.com/ali-watson-terrarium/


Gie Autumnal doon e Watr o Leith in Embra the day. Fab tae cross the new brig #SilentSunday #ScotsLeid #Edinburgh #Scotland
A flood of brown & red trees flanking a weir along a riverside. A shiny new bridge traverses the banks. A splash of blue reflecting in the pool at the bottom of the weir. And you can see the sound the water piling over the weir, a constant white noise


Would you like a gentle and inspiring start to your weekend?

If so, I'd recommend reading this piece I wrote for Barley magazine about drystone, the land, resilience and the life lessons learned from this ancient craft.

https://www.barleymagazine.com/blog/kristie-de-garis-drywalling

#Writing #Scotland #NatureWriting #Article #Reading
A colour photograph of a drystone wall that disappears into the distance. Surrounded by green grass with a soft blue sky above.


Here's a photograph that will brighten your day.

This is Scottish Refugee Council head Sabir Zazai, who came to the country as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999.

He's standing in sunny Edinburgh, with some of the 20 refugee women from Afghanistan who have just arrived on visas to study medicine at Scottish universities.

If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

#FreeAfghanWomen
#RefugeesWelcome
#Scotland

🧵25
Photo as described in main post.


"All Night Sounds" will continue through the night on Radio Jammor, to 7am tomorrow.
https://radiojammor.com/schedule
Radio Jammor is on the air...
Broadcasting from #Scotland
https://radiojammor.com
#music #radio
#allnightlong
Transistor radio in the dark, with some low power spotlights behind and a slow and low candle in a glass, lighting it from the front, giving a reddish glow


A beautiful calm misty morning, livened up somewhat by the mass of gulls, crows and ducks squawking, cawing and quacking at great volume.

#photography #Scotland #birds
A natural sepia tone photo taken on a misty morning as the sun rises over the river. There are silhouettes of 4 flying gulls prominent in the photo, with more floating on the rippling water alongside a couple of ducks. There is mist shrouding the trees and buildings in the distance.


Copper Stills - made the way they always have been.

Of course not our wee installation a deniable distance from the cottage 🥳

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/11/handcrafting-copper-whisky-stills-in-scotland-photo-essay

#Handmade #Art #Copper #Still #Scotland


I go to a lot of whisky tastings (indeed, I'm going to one tonight), and there is often talk about the impact of the design of the still on the end product. (The answer depends on who you talk to.) They're clearly important, though.

"‘Every hammer blow makes a difference’: handcrafting whisky stills in Scotland – photo essay"

#Scotland #whisky
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/11/handcrafting-copper-whisky-stills-in-scotland-photo-essay?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other


After a sleepy few days of thick, grey cloud cover - the wind had picked up this morning around the Isle of Skye and we can now see some of the Cuillin mountain range again from the cottage, this is Blaven, one of my favourite big sawblade ridges. #SilentSunday #Scotland #landscapephotography #mountains
Part of the Cuillin mountain range, Isle of Skye, Scotland seen from across the Eishort sealoch. The very jagged ridges belong to a very famous mountain called Blaven.


Lalan Sniper Scottish Volunteer
Photo - Jawdat Ahmed
Type - Photo Essay
Date - 7\11\2024
https://youtu.be/IPi5OdLpOq4

#Irak #Iraq #Journalist #foto #Media #TV #Journal #Kurdistan #Scottish #scotland #Irbil #Erbil #Arbil #Hawler #Photojournalist #Photo_Essay #duhok


Inhaltswarnung: Politics


"Just a couple of weeks ago... Sarwar was eagerly looking forward to performing a weekly miracle at #FMQs, standing up despite not having a spine, and securing his position as this year's 'Saviour of the Union'.

"But no one, not even a hard-bitten cynic like me, could have anticipated the rapidity of Labour's fall from the good graces of the electorate, not just in #Scotland but across the UK as a whole."

- Paul Kavanagh

https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24700272.labours-gb-energy-just-another-branch-office/


As much as it would amuse me to post many MANY shiny balls and colourful trees I think there's just one last piece to finish the thread off, because the colours are so beautiful.

Also, butterfly 🦋

/end

#Scotland #EnchantedForest #butterfly


Let there be no doubt, if I ruled the world all bridges would wear bling like this. Lots of other good stuff too, obvs, but blinged up bridges FTW.

#Scotland #EnchantedForest


The Allegro Tunnel viewed from over the water & before walking through.

#Scotland #photography #EnchantedForest
A photo of the tunnel from across the loch. From this angle it looks like a set of rainbow coloured vertical stripes with lit up trees behind and water in front. The water reflects the lights.
Photo of the tunnel from over the water, but zoomed in quite tight. The vertical strips of colour are bright, but they have jagged black areas cut out - the leaves and branches from surrounding trees. You can see people walking through the tunnel, in the darkness between the stripes.
A photo of the tunnel entrance. The frame is black, and there is an angular archway of rainbow coloured stripes. At the bottom the black includes the silhouettes of some of the visitors heads and shoulders.
A photo of the tunnel from a few metres away. There is a group of people walking through, heads lit up reflecting the different colours lights from the angular archway. To the left and right you can see lit up trees in pink and blues.


Fenster Freitag

A medieval window looking into a medieval window looking into a gallery. The Burrelll Collection, Pollock Park, Glasgow

https://burrellcollection.com/

#FensterFreitag #Burrell #Glasgow #Scotland
A view through a medieval window at the Burrell collection to a mother and looking into one go the galleries
The Burrell collection at Pollock Park in Glasgow


The spectacular beach and superb coastal scenery at Clachtoll, north of Lochinver on the west coast of Sutherland. More pics and info: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/lochinver/clachtoll/index.html

#Scotland #Clachtoll #Assynt #Sutherland #UndiscoveredScotland
The beach and coastal scenery at Clachtoll. The image shows a view over a broad white beach at low tide from tussocky grass in the foreground to a rocky outcrop on the right and a low rocky promontory on the far side of the beach, with some white cottages at its left-hand end. The turquoise sea is lapping in from the right and in the background are some mountains low on the horizon on the right of the frame. The sky is blue.


It seems that the Home Office have learnt bugger all from previous feck ups.

Costa Koushiappis, 39, who is Greek Cypriot, has been told to show up at Edinburgh airport at 7am on Friday to be forcibly put on a flight to Amsterdam just weeks after he received an email from the Home Office to say it could take a further 24 months to process his application for status.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/oct/31/eu-citizen-who-applied-for-pre-settled-status-set-to-be-deported-from-scotland

#Brexit #HomeOffice #Incompetence #Scotland #ScottishIndependence


A lovely dawn for a swim in Loch Earn today. A clear cold night left mist lying on the water and draped over the hills. #Scotland #Perthshire #WildSwimming
Looking over the water towards a gap in the hills and lochside trees where the golden light of the unrisen sun is glowing in a misty sky. The glassy water in the foreground is rippled by my swimming.


Calling all #nature and #MarineBiology friends, can anyone tell us what these little jellies are? Beach, Isle of Arran.

#image #beach #identify #sea #Scotland #Arran
Clear see-through jellies on a sandy beach. They are small, size of the end of a thumb maybe, and have vertical ridges all around. Kinda shaped like acorns.