Jim Malcolm

The excellent weather has finally broken here in Perth, today is wet and horrible. Here’s a snap from a couple of days ago looking north from the old bridge.

It’s also the end of the trout fishing season, which was good over the summer because it was wetter than usual. This fish was caught on the Tay back in May and ended up on a plate with asparagus and scalloped potatoes…

It’s also the end of the Lawn Bowling season; there’s a club just opposite where we live. For those that have not seen it played, it’s a bit like Curling on grass. The grass is perfectly flat, absolutely worshipped by the members and is loving treated over the winter to keep it positively Wimbledon standard. Friends of ours from Arizona were staying at our house while we were away on holiday, and not knowing that the grass was sacred actually kicked a football about on it. Luckily they were advised to stop before any of the bowlers saw them or they would have been lynched!

Took Sandy (centre) to Aberdeen yesterday for a judo competition. He fought really well winning the silver medal in his category. Meanwhile the Perth football team – St Johnstone, were thumping Aberdeen 5-1 at Pittodrie a few hundred yards away. Happy days.

No surf on Aberdeen beach today as it has been very still. It is a real hotspot for the hardy few…

Yesterday my new live cd was ready to be manufactured so I toddled up the A9 to see Martin Hadden who runs Birnam CD. Martin has been a major figure in the folk scene for many years. He was a member of Silly Wizard, one of Scotlands most loved folk bands and toured all over the world with them. They were especially popular in the United States. Starting off as Birnam Tapes, Martin has made ‘product’ for thousands of folkies and other artists and anyone with even the smallest collection of Scottish music will have something that has passed through his hands.

Also in Birnam is a little garden dedicated to the author and illustrator Beatrix Potter who used to spend summer holidays here and was inspired by the wildlife.

This little statue of Jeremy Fisher appeals to me for obvious reasons.

Went to the bottle bank yesterday and felt that this fellow deserved a parting snap. It was probably the most enjoyed whisky from our recent tour of Scotland. I don’t get to drink this quality of stuff for myself but get to buy it for our tour tastings. Introducing folks to the ‘really good stuff’ has become something of a crusade for me, and it is delightful to see folks become curious and enthused about our national drink. This one came from Tobermory distillery on the Inner Hebridean Island of Mull. It was matured for twenty years in a cask which had previously held sherry from Spain. It had a wonderful ruby colour and rich fruity taste with a definite coastal/maritime hint. It was bottled by Cadenheads, Scotlands oldest independent bottlers. The trouble with this type of pure, single barrel Scotch is that there are only a limited number of bottles and when it’s gone it’s gone.. But I’m glad to say that I have squirreled away a couple of bottles for next year’s adventures!

Loved this recycling classification from a house we walked past on North Uist.

We took some good folks to the Braemar Highland Games back in September. Here the Queen (in dark red to the left of the caber) watches a big man in a skirt throwing a telegraph pole around. The Queen has a rather austere castle a few miles away at Balmoral and always attends the games as it falls within the Windsor family’s annual Scottish holiday. September is the best huntin’, shooting’, fishin’ month and the heather is usually still ‘sweetly blooming’. It is a wonderful spectacle with plenty too see, but one feels that most are really there too see her..

These guys certainly are. They spent the whole time with their bucket-wide cameras trained on the royals looking for the slightest facial twitch or expression. Put me right off being a royal.. I have a clip of a wonderful pipe band marching past which I can’t load it on here but it will be on my Facebook page.