Times have changed for the humble snowdrop. The ‘venturous harbinger of Spring’ as Wordsworth described it has moved centre stage in recent years with a host of activities celebrating its arrival each February. The Cambo Estate near St Andrews hosts a fortnight long Snowdrop Festival where you can wander around 70 acres of woodland glittering with over 300 varieties of snowdrop. Even more enchanting, this weekend you can experience Snowdrops
How wonderful would it be to travel the world in one’s own house? Floating from place to place like the old man in Up without leaving the comfort of home behind. It’s not so whimsical a thought behind these images by photographer Laurent Chehere however. His aim is to pick out overlooked architecture and domiciles in his native Paris and literally elevate them for our attention. The complex, photoshopped collages
Here’s an early glimpse of what promises to be a very beautiful – and very long – tapestry depicting the history of Scotland. Writer Alexander McCall Smith, whose idea this was, is working with historian Alistair Moffat and artist Andrew Crummy as well as stitchers from all over Scotland to produce The Great Tapestry of Scotland. It will be world’s longest tapestry and one of the biggest community arts projects
A little Sunday afternoon opinion piece – interested to hear your thoughts… Social media’s a party right? It’s fast, fun and free and everyone’s invited. It can even shift power from the traditional heavyweight to the little guy. But are we sleepwalking towards a day when shunning Facebook and just saying no to Twitter is deemed socially irresponsible? Could being a social media refusenik make you invisible to society and ultimately render
How would you describe yourself in a personal ad? So few words to sum up your whole life. You’d think that most people would go all out to sell themselves. Are these people too modest and undemanding to even sell themselves in a personal ad? Check out their ads from a local paper below. ‘Bob, 58, drives, seeks special female of similar age for relationship’ ‘ Jim, 50 likes nights
Are libraries like dogs and resemble their owners? Which of these celebrity libraries looks as you’d expect it to when you know who the owner is? Diane Keaton’s (above), Karl Lagerfeld’s and Ralph Lauren’s could be guessed perhaps. Nigella Lawson’s looks messier than expected but it’s an old picture from House & Garden – maybe she’s tidied up now she’s a domestic goddess. Via Beautiful-Libraries.com Karl Lagerfeld – wonder if
Patrick Dalton loves London, especially the shit parts. Seven years ago he started the website Shit London as a response to Secret London which featured photographs of sunsets at Tower Bridge and pictures of Beefeaters. As he pointed out, he lived in London and Beefeaters didn’t feature hugely in his life. Most of the photos are sent in by readers and he selects the best for publication. His captions are
The rosy cheeked and elegantly coiffed image of Robert Burns as portrayed by Alexander Nasmyth is the one that has come to be universally accepted – but how close is it to reality? Has the old familiar image prevented us from seeing the real man? Using forensic technology, a 3D model was recently created at Dundee University to show Robert Burns ‘as he really was’. Apart from having Burns look
When the great Argentinian writer Jorges Luis Borges said he imagined ‘that Paradise would be a kind of library’, he was probably picturing something much like Innerpeffray Library. Often described as a ‘literary jewel’ this discreet gem, nestling in a tranquil setting near the River Earn in Perthshire, was actually Scotland’s first free public lending library. It was founded by David Drummond, 3rd Lord Madertie who, in 1680, made 400
Vitaly Raskalov and Alexander Remnov call themselves skywalkers. Skywalking, which consists of scaling structures without safety equipment and then uploading the pictures to social media sites, appears to have originated in Russia and has gained popularity over the last year. Some of the highest buildings in Moscow and some other cities in Russia feature including the top of the Russian Academy of Sciences (where the boys are doing the plank) or a turret