BRITS are on high alert today after Storm Dennis battered the country with rain and gales over the weekend – with fears ANOTHER storm is on the horizon. Four people were killed and another is…
Continue at THE SUN: Storm Dennis chaos goes on with ‘danger to life’ floods before Storm Ellen hits
Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith with a tribute to our national bard.
Euan and Mark speak to Des Thompson, one of the specialist advisors to the Grouse Moor Review Group about the group’s report and what the licensing of grouse moors might practically involve.
As we gear up to the opening of the River Dee for salmon fishing Euan hears about plans for the celebrations to mark the event. What we plant in our gardens can impact the wildlife that makes its home.
Euan finds out about the types of wildflowers we should be growing to encourage insects and birdlife. And as Saturday marks Burns Night Mark and Euan investigate what goes in to making the ‘Great chieftain o the puddin’-race’ with Dumfries butcher Stuart Houston.
And after 7 o’clock we focus entirely on Robert Burns and in particularly his time in the Dumfries area. In 1788 Burns moved to Ellisland Farm and built a house that he stayed in until 1791.
Mark and Euan take a look around and hear about what Ellisland would have been like in Burns’ day and which of his poems and songs were composed there. Burns was keen on nature and wrote a lot about the wildlife he encountered while farming at Ellisland.
Chris Rollie is an ornithologist, conservationist and Burns enthusiast who tells us all about Burns and his connection with nature.
The Globe Inn in Dumfries was a favourite haunt of Burns during his time at Ellisland and afterwards when he moved to the town. Mark and Euan get a tour from former landlady Maureen McKerrow whose family have a long connection with the pub.
And we end our programme at the Burns mausoleum in Dumfries, the resting place of the poet and his wife Jean Armour
Listen to this program at BBC Scotland: Out of Doors – A Robert Burns Special – BBC Sounds
My faith in rock music has been temporarily restored. According to the manager of The 1975, the execrable essay/song that his band recorded with diminutive doom-monger Greta Thunberg had previously [ . . . ]
Continue at THE SPEACTATOR: In praise of the bands that said no to Greta Thunberg | Coffee House
Compensation payments of more than £500 million have been made to wind farms to switch off turbines over the past eight years, the latest figures show.
A new monthly record was set in September this year, when £28,434,560 was paid out by National Grid to stop electricity generation. Most cash was paid to Scottish wind farms, with some earning more than £1m a month for not supplying power.
Continue at THE SCOTSMAN: Scottish wind farm paid £96m to switch off – The Scotsman
The special scientific status of the area where Donald Trump has built his golf course in Aberdeenshire is under review, BBC Scotland learns.
Scottish Natural Heritage said the Menie golf course had caused habitat loss and damage to the dune system.
The environmental agency is assessing the scale of the impact to decide whether all or parts of the site should lose their special status.
The Trump course said its environmental approach was “first class”.
Donald Trump officially played his first round at the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire in July 2012.
The golf course covers part of the Foveran Links Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), north of Aberdeen, which was considered one of the finest examples of a mobile sand dune system in the UK.
Before the course was built, the dune system moved north at substantial speeds – up to 11 metres per year – across an area of about 15 hectares.
Scottish Natural Heritage, which objected to the golf course development, has been monitoring its environmental impact [ . . . ] Read more at: Trump dunes’ special status ‘reviewed’
