“Enough is enough,” said one Edinburgh resident, about the scene of desolation in Princes Street Gardens. Following this year’s bigger-than-ever Christmas Market and Hogmanay celebrations, the mudbath left after the festive village was dismantled is disgraceful. I’m tempted to say it looks as if a herd of belted galloways has run amok, but that would be unfair. Cattle don’t make half as much midden as the city’s annual cash-cow.

When I first moved to the country, I anticipated taking long sturdy walks every few days, filling my lungs with fresh air, and gradually – proudly – achieving the weathered complexion of a Norwegian fisherman. Such is the variation in outdoor complexions in rural parts, Farrow & Ball could start a new range: shepherd’s sunburn, builder’s brick red, farmer’s frozen snout.

In search of peanuts for the birds, I stumbled across an agricultural shop in a nearby village. From the outside it was unspectacular, but opening the door was like stepping into an episode of The Archers. They did indeed have peanuts, in sacks the size of whisky barrels. I wouldn’t have been able to drag one as far as the till, and I wondered if other weaklings had ever secretly slashed them open and let nuts pour into their pockets, gloves and wellie boots, before staggering out like overstu

Sunday, April 19, 2020.

Caerlaverock Castle

KIRSTY WILSON, BEECHGROVE PRESENTER

HOLIDAYS may be temporarily on hold, but planning magical trips is still possible. Spontaneity shapes thrilling travel escapades, but there's also a case for careful, methodical planning. Often, the preparation – deciding on a route, reading up about a destination – can be just as enjoyable as the trip itself.

OM worker Sokhem shares his testimony of leaving Buddhism to follow Jesus.

A GROUP of Glasgow-based students are working on an international project to design the building blocks of a Moon base.

AN ENERGY-HARNESSING wave machine is set to begin sea trials later this year.

THIS time last year the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the Crown Office were united in great fanfare about groundbreaking new legislation designed to tackle domestic abuse.

A man has been found dead outside of a police station in Ayrshire.

Scotland's crime levels have dropped by around 25% since lockdown measures were introduced.

Colin Grassie is to stand down as chairman of the board of Scottish Rugby at August’s AGM.

WHETHER through shrewd planning, good fortune or a bit of both, Edinburgh managed to complete the bulk of their business for next season before rugby came grinding to a halt. When precisely play resumes is, of course, unknown and out of their control, but they are at least confident that they will be in good shape to hit the ground running.

British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson has been selected to lead an independent governance review of World Rugby.

By Kristy Dorsey

Global carbon emissions from energy are expected to fall by almost 8% in 2020 in the biggest drop in history as a result of the pandemic, experts said.

A SCOTTISH clean energy company has secured a key part in a six-figure contract for a hydrogen fuel project in Northern Ireland.

Celtic Connections

The Celtic Connections roots and traditional music festival recorded 100,000 visits this January.

WHEN Malian quartet Songhoy Blues performed at last year's Celtic Connections, audiences were treated to a form of music appealingly dubbed “desert blues”. A user-friendly term, it sounds like it could have been dreamed up by a marketing agency and applied equally well to a perfume, a brand of jeans or a chain of upmarket Tex-Mex restaurants.

FOR decades, both Celtic and Rangers have dominated the national conversation when it comes to football in Scotland. The vast majority of issues seem to revolve around the two Glasgow clubs and, predictably, the issue of how to conclude the Premiership campaign has been boiled down to whether or not Celtic should be crowned champions if – as is looking increasingly likely – the 2019/20 campaign is unable to be played to a finish.

IT is less than two months since Shelley Kerr and her backroom staff, along with the domestic players in Scotland’s squad, flew back from Alicante to Glasgow. On the very same day – March 11 – the World Health Organisation accorded Covid-19 pandemic status.

SO, is it a smoking gun after all? Or is it just a damp water pistol?

I TOOK a bottle of Cot home the other day to share with a friend and his reaction got me thinking about the subject matter for this week's column, so here’s to wines and blends you may not have come across.

In “Painting Nationalism Red?”, an engaging new pamphlet published by Democratic Left Scotland, the journalist Neal Ascherson pays tribute to Tom Nairn as Scotland’s “pre-eminent political intellectual”.

In his new book, “The End of British Party Politics?”, the political scientist Roger Awan-Scully captures the paradox of last year’s general election in Scotland.

It wasn’t that long ago that health experts were championing golf as a soothing, morale-boosting haven away from the ravaging rigours of the coronavirus.

THE Open Championship will not take place at all this year.

With the Six Nations rugby in full flow (come on, Scotland – I’m forever the optimist) now is a great time to look at amazing beverages from all the nations competing.

Readers have been quick to voice their opinion after it was reported that Nicola Sturgeon missed six emergency coronavirus Cobra meetings.

THE SNP is so rotten it may have to be replaced by a new independence party, its former deputy leader has said.

Quarantining people arriving from abroad is being “actively” looked at, a senior member of the UK Government has admitted, as criticism mounts over the country dragging its feet compared to other parts of the world.

It was set up by tourism leaders to create an authentic picture of Scotland during the coronavirus lockdown by opening a window to people’s experiences while they stay at home.

FRANKLY? The restaurant world is going mad. Consider this: I order a home delivery from Yu-ca-taco early on Friday evening. For Saturday night. By text of course.

It’ll be five years next month since Gerry Cinnamon released his debut single Kampfire Vampire on Glasgow-based micro-label First Run Records, a half decade in which the Castlemilk-born singer-songwriter has gone from jobbing gig jockey on the city’s DIY scene to a bona fide musical phenomenon with combined Spotify plays of well over 100 million.

IN April 2004, the Victoria & Albert museum in London staged an exhibition of the work of Vivienne Westwood. The show was a celebration and a culmination of the fashion designer’s move from the margins of the industry in the 1970s, where she was creating clothes for the punks who hung around the King’s Road, to her 21st-century incarnation as first among equals in British haute couture.

THE Through the Keyhole Pandemic Special has certainly given rise to some entertaining sights.

A FEW weeks ago, Wendy James was trending on Twitter. It’s been happening quite often over the last few months, a result of BBC Four’s repeats of Top of the Pops reaching 1988 and 1989, the years in which a pink-lipsticked, bra-flaunting James launched herself on the public consciousness as the brash, blonde frontwoman of Transvision Vamp.

WE start at the low point. “It’s hard doing music,” Jill O’Sullivan admits. “I love it. I feel compelled to sing and play and write. But I was thinking of quitting.”

DRAKE - DARK LANE DEMO TAPES

The Meadowbank Stadium was one of the shabbier landmarks in east Edinburgh until it was knocked down last year. A new one is rising from the ashes, looking like one of those massive cruise liners that appear in the Forth.

The top technology official for Virginia's Fairfax County schools resigned after the district struggled to handle some major technical glitches in its e-learning platforms.

SCOTTISH Government ministers have appealed to Westminster for financial support to be handed over to universities during the Covid-19 pandemic amid a pledge that Holyrood is “ready to stand by” institutions.

SCOTLAND’S universities must play their part in adapting to the “new normal” amid warnings that institutions could be forced to merge in return for government support.

The Long Beach, Calif., school district is deploying a multifaceted strategy to put more students of color in high-level math courses and help them succeed.

Building science lessons around phenomena that students know equally and can see in their own lives is making the subject more relevant and interesting.

By automatically enrolling all students in high-level courses, schools in Washington state are working to erase a long entrenched form of inequity.

The evidence that culturally responsive teaching can fix the nation's schools for children of color is promising, but woefully incomplete, writes Heather C. Hill.