Monday night miscellany - from greyhounds to ghosts via seafood and spin

One of our regular readers passes on heartfelt thanks on behalf of the Retired Greyhound Trust, Isle of Skye Branch, and Helen Forsyth to all those that supported the recent Trust Sponsored walk The Gurn hears that Although the event was heavily corrupted by the weather (it seems to become a “trend” that at Nairn events marquees take off? – fortunately the cakes did not!) they raised £495 for the furry friends in need. Pictures of the event here.

Seafood for Nairn Academy – a press release out there states: “SEAFOOD Scotland is continuing the highly successful Seafood in Schools programme with an exciting, interactive event at Nairn Academy on the 1st and 2nd November. Around 250 pupils from the Academy and local primary schools will be attending the event. 

The children will enjoy four workshops with their classmates, learning where seafood comes from, how healthy it is, and how it gets from sea to plate. A selection of fish and shellfish will be available to taste, and pupils will have the opportunity to see fresh and live species including crab, lobster, cod, monkfish and even squid.” More here.

One man’s riverside regeneration is the creation of another man’s ecological wasteland. Joe Telfer isn’t happy with River Community Council. Read all about it here. The River CC project includes a long-term effort to remove Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed, three invasive species that have been doing untold damage to the delicate ecological balance of the riverside for years now. The Gurn also understands from a regular unreliable source that River CC are also in negotiations to obtain young alders of local provenance to under plant some of the more older trees in that area between the A96 bridge and the sewage bridge.

The Kingsteps saga is still brewing away steadily behind the scenes with all eyes on the forthcoming River CC meeting on the 13^th of November. Those readers who are unfamiliar with the controversial area in question or haven’t been down there for a while might benefit from a few images - here's a set of images on the Gurn's flickr pages. Any comments on this subject, please go to this thread.

Do you ever get scunnered with the sort of political language we get spoon fed from the mainstream media? An interesting quote on the APT blog quotes a wifie Margaret Heffernan:
"Orwell understood that...if you mess with the language you mess with people's thinking.  If you misuse language you stop people being able to think clearly...in some contexts I often wonder if that is the point."

An interesting post from the APT Secretary which is well worth a couple of minutes of your time, "True democracy depends on clear communication."

Ian Finlayson has a book of Nairn Ghost Tales available on Amazon that can be downloaded onto a Kindle or other device. More information here Ghost Town – Ghosts of Nairn 2.

Perth and Kinross is the name of the local authority just south of Highland Region on the A9 as you go down the road. Kinross Town Hall is a derelict building however and the former seat of civic power is up for sale along with the former public library next to it. There’s an article mentioning the buildings on Andy Wightman’s blog. This observer was in Kinross earlier in the year and took some pictures of the very same building. If I can find them I’ll put them up and link them later. The point is that there is probably a service point somewhere in the town and somewhere you can get books but look what has happened so such an imposing public building that was once the civic heart of Kinross. Could we one day see our own Courthouse going up for sale in Nairn?

Now to go off subject for a while. Finally, one Unionist scare story that has got this observer really concerned : Scotland ‘More Susceptible’ To Zombie Invasion Under Independence.