New Addition To The Family.

Every new parent should have a photgraph taken with their new addition, well I would say that of course. This happy couple brought their daughter along at just three days old. If this first photograph is not taken within a week, the teensy weensy effect is lost.

Return Of The Fungi.

One of my earliest blog postings was on this topic.

I was going to cut the grass for the final time this year last Thursday but it was far to nice a day for such mundane things. On Friday morning my front lawn was covered in this fungi. It was not there on Thursday. Where did it come from ? How can it grow so fast ? And does anybody know what it is called ?

T On The Forth.

It is always sad when the sailing season comes to a close and yet again this season, I got very little done due to the dreaded work load.

I had my last sail of the season on my best pal Alastair's boat on Saturday. We sailed over to the Fife coast, (yes that's me at the helm) had a few tinnies en route and then it was time to get back to Granton. Off came the mast and that was that till the spring. My wee dog thought I was sailing away as we took the boat back to the pontoon and howled her head off on the slipway. Aye, winter is around the corner, roll on April 2008.

Blast From The past.

The things I have found that were squirreled away by my parents never cease to amaze me. I found an old negative in an old envelope at the back of my late mothers bureau earlier tonight. It had fallen behind a drawer and must have been there for over 46 years. I put it into the negative scanner and up came this image.

Yes, that's me at about four years old in the woolly hat, with my sister standing on the tree stump. I have no idea where it was taken but I do remember fondly, that hat. I am always saying, every time you take a photograph, you capture a piece of history. I put it fairly accurately at around 1960. Priceless!

Richard Thompson Rocks The Fruit Market.

What can I say about this man? I give up. I have been listening to him for what seems most of my life and he just keeps on getting better.

With 40 albums under his belt, voted by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 20 greatest guitarists of all time, founding member of 60's band Fairport Convention and having his songs covered by no less than Elvis Costello, David Byrne and Bonnie Raitt, to name but a few, what more could I possibly say.

He played for two and a half hours. It was quite amazing. I am still astonished by the amount of people I meet who say, " Richard Thompson, never heard of him ". Are they living in bubble? Or maybe I am. I wouldn't mind his lion rampant shirt
right enough.

Telefonica visit Scotland.

One of the great things about my job is that I get to visit and enjoy some of Scotland's finest locations. On Tuesday of this week, a group of predominantly Spanish
executives from Telefonica were having a conference at the world famous Gleneagles Hotel. Part of their day allowed them to try off road driving, clay pigeon shooting and my favourite, a visit to the School of Falconry.

I can never get enough of watching these magnificent birds in action. Seeing them up close and personal is always a joy.

If all that wasn't enough, the day was finished off by a dinner in the Great Hall at Stirling Castle. It's a hard life right enough!

Hip To Be Square.

On a walk with my wee dog recently, I noticed that she had something in her mouth. On closer inspection it turned out to be a piece of square sausage. She carried it around for some time and obviously not being that hungry, disappeared into the bushes
and re emerged minus the booty. It was funny later on when she was trying to find it and couldn't. I reckon some other less fussy dog got the reward. As they say, "snooze and you loose".

Titan Crane At Night.

I was looking over Clydebank the other night from my living room window. The Titan Crane was changing colour every twenty seconds. At first I thought I was seeing things, but no. It is a fantastic sight and you can get to the top as it is now open for business.

Who would ever have imagined that a crane, built specifically to lift huge engines into equally huge ships would end up a visitor attraction all these years later. It was a great idea by someone.

I keep saying that I must get up there and I will, the views will be stunning. Check out its web site and you'll want to get up there yourself.

Is this a "Flower of Scotland" ?

Last week was a right busy week so I've been slack at updating my blog. I had 130 Daimler Chrysler top Executives in the country for most of it and I never got to bed till about 2.00am each day. I'll post up some shots early next week.

In the meantime, you may have read that my back garden is a jungle and with this weird weather we have been getting, this flower appeared this afternoon. It starts life like the top shot and then bursts into the bottom shot. Anyone out there know what it is?