Tar Tar For Now There must be some cash still swilling around in the Scottish Borders Roads' budget for FY 2007/8 as there is a sudden rush of pothole filling going on in these here parts. Quite often the budget for repairs is exhausted by July -or so we used to be told when we wanted a quick repair job done. But now road gangs (not usually chained together) are out and about. To my eye the technique seems Third World-or perhaps not quite as advanced. Take one small lorry. Add a couple of blokes. Issue them with small buckets full of steaming tar. Ask them to fill in all available potholes, crumbled edges and other impurities within, say, fifty yards (having thoughtfully partially blocked the carriageway with an arrangement of barrels and old planks. Traffic lights optional.Once holes...
Borders Layby Originally uploaded by davydubbit Thankyou davydubbit for this image of the Scottish Border-the custom post and passport control to the left is I think a caff serving decent English scoff before facing the privations of Haggis, Neaps and a Full Scottish Breakfast All Day. I blog this only because of a little item in today's Berwickshire News reporting the theft of English flags from the 'Border Crossing' on the A1 at Lamberton, three miles north of Ber Wick. The Head of Regeneration (ugh) in the BBC (Berwick Borough Council) has said that thieves have 'yet again ruined the experience for visitors by stealing these flags' All those bus loads of people fleeing the barren wilds of Alba are bitterly disappointed by not having their hearts lifted by a glimpse of the...
Lies,Damn Lies, Statistics and Opinion PollsThe Berwickshire has a series of running polls on every conceivable subject from Ber Wick 'returning' to Scotland to the merits of wind farms in the Lammermuirs.One is of some historical interest with regard to the closing of Eccles Primary School as part of a round of schools closures in the Borders which sunk Hutton. The question was Is Scottish Borders Council right to keep Eccles school open? 75% said yes and 25 % said noNow that may have not been the right answer for the Highheidyins in St Boswells so the question was cunningly rephrased (by some stickler for Borders Grammer, as she/it/they is/are writ?)Are Scottish Borders right to keep Eccles school open? Vote Results Yes 0% No 0%Great result for the Educational Gurus who could go around...
Bye Bye Berwick?Today's Independent has a double spread feature on Berwick upon Tweed picking up the poll on whether the town should transfer its allegiance from England to Scotland : THE ENGLISH TOWN THAT WANT TO BE SCOTTISH is the headline on Page 16.Nothing much new except I did not know that a severed arm of William Wallace (not Mel Gibson) was once displayed here after his terminal hanging drawing and quartering as recently as 1305. It has since been removed on Public Health grounds. It also again nails the myth that Berwick is still at war with Russia following the end of the Crimean war But I had not heard before that so prevalent was that belief that a formal (albeit Tongue in Cheek) treaty 1966 of peace was signed by the mayor of Berwick with a Soviet official in 1966. 'Now...
BANKS AND EVERYTHING. DUNS HAS IT A' Banks and everything Originally uploaded by GDStinx What an endorsement for Duns! Thankyou GDStinx from Flickr. It is interesting that it should be the banks which are seemingly the most important element of this wee town. But 'and everything' What a sensible move we seem to be making. So now the good people of Duns have a choice of town mottoes:The rather aggressive 'Duns Dings A'or: ' Banks and everything'What would you choose(Certainly more apt than rather pompous Peebles' effort:Paris for Business. Peebles for...
A bloggee has asked about the poisoning of a female Golden Eagle in the Scottish Borders. This happened a couple of years ago and it is as followsBreeding female Golden eagle in Scottish Borders poisoned.A joint investigation by Lothian and Borders Police, RSPB Scotland, the Scottish SPCA and the Scottish Executive discovered poisoned bait on a grouse moor in the Borders. Ironically, it was found on the 'glorious twelfth', marking the start of the grouse shooting season.The death is especially sickening given that the pair raised a chick this year, and although the chick has fledged and is now semi-independent, it was still being fed by both parents and so there is now a significant concern for its safety.Bob Elliot, head of investigations at RSPB Scotland said: 'Despite being excellent...
New initiative to stamp out dog fouling "We Bag it, tie it and bin it" is the 'Curb your Cur' slogan of the month launched by the Scottish Borders Council in yet another 'initiative' -how many has Huttonian witnessed in the last ten plus years? . Hawick and Peebles are apparently the Borders (Dog) Crap towns. The full story in the Berwickshire is as follows:SCOTTISH Borders Council's new campaign to stamp out dog fouling was unveiled earlier this week.The council is targeting dog owners who do not clean up after their dogs in public places and they are being told to 'Bag it, Tie it, Bin it'.New patrols will be enforcing the law across the Scottish Borders, focusing initially on Peebles and Hawick."It is important that dog owners are aware of their responsibilities and clean up their...
WEATHER WARNINGWe are as obsessed with the (wonderful) weather in the Merse as the next man-our occasional garden help, a gnarled (youngish) countryman cannot introduce any new topic without a discourse on the weather, nor abandon an old one for that matter. But our devotion to meteorology and the other black arts is ignored by the pundits at the BBC Blether Centre who neither know where the Borders are nor care. We get lumped in with 'Scotland' or 'Northern England' and by the southhron- centric the presenters on the Today Programme as that huge area of Anglia Deserta which they vaguely believe exists beyond Hampstead. 'Here be Bumpkins'So the advent of the on-line weather map is a great boon and we can find ourselves on the larger scale ones. An example is above from Met Check and once...
