Autumn on the horizon. Will we know the difference?It has felt like October for much of the summer this year. But today a mischievous sun peeks through fluffy clouds (such flirts!) and in the garden I find a buzz of pollinators partying among the plants. Great opportunists. True survivors. Perhaps they can help me plot a course for 2025.How to plan for our new climate … [Read more...] about How to garden in a changing climate?
Environment
Saving Loch Torridon
After a dook in the sea in the west Highlands last week, a neighbour led me over to her car to show me a water-filled jar with a chunk of something that looked a bit like coral in the bottom. She lifted it up to the light and turned it around. “Can you see? It is covered with filamentous algae’. Sue … [Read more...] about Saving Loch Torridon
Looking for political dynamism in UK/Scotland
Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have overseen and backed rapid charging of far-right rioters, a violent, vicious mob. And they’ve acknowledged these riots are driven by unacceptable racism. But there are wider questions about the language of politics and media around immigration and race, and the social media and political underpinnings of the far right. And there are questions … [Read more...] about Looking for political dynamism in UK/Scotland
The excessive price of the energy Union
Much of rural Scotland - the Highlands, the islands, the Borders - does not have access to the gas grid. Because of the way energy is priced in the UK, it is much more expensive to heat your home with electricity than gas. These areas have an elderly population, a great many of whom face a shivery winter. All the colder now, because of the Labour government’s withdrawal of the … [Read more...] about The excessive price of the energy Union
The change election: UK and Scotland
On Friday, world leaders including Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen queued up to offer congratulations to Keir Starmer on his landslide Labour victory. But Hungary’s Viktor Orbán was, outrageously and provocatively, in Moscow meeting Vladimir Putin. His pretence at representing the EU was swiftly rejected by the actual president of the European Council, … [Read more...] about The change election: UK and Scotland