The newspaper headlines today are celebrating when people will be able to go to pubs, the hairdressers, art galleries, on holiday. For it all to happen on the planned dates, infection rates must stay low. That requires people to be sensible, careful and think about others. Most of the population meet those requirements all the […]

Talk about Sex and the City! There were strange noises in the garden late last night. Investigating with a torch confirmed that two hedgehogs were indeed getting friendly. (What a chat-up line: “Here hen, d’ye wan a date doon by the compost heap?”) All fitted exactly with the text-book information on hedgehogs. Humanity has seen

Yesterday we reflected on the ‘new normal’. Today we are reminded of the ‘old normal’: it’s raining, it’s not awfully warm, the rest of the country is roasting, while we can look forward to usual ‘start of the school holidays’ weather! But the school holidays will not be the same as they usually are: people

While sifting through old photos yesterday to scan for this week’s Tail of the Bank shots I came across some photos from Primary School days. When in P5 I went on a school trip to Belgium, starting with the overnight train to London. There we were on the station platform, hours after we usually went

This weekend sees Midsummer. Restrictions on movement started before the Equinox, and we were in lockdown by the time the clocks changed. We have had all sorts of feelings and emotions over the past three months. Fortunately, and unusually, we have had many sunny days during that time. It may be indicative of more serious

Question: Can you say what the new regulations are about meeting, and when they take effect? It was much easier when the answer was ‘Don’t do almost everything, don’t go almost anywhere’. It is more complicated now, because restrictions have to be eased without the risk of increasing spread of the virus. Let’s hope and

We are expecting to hear from the First Minister later today that we will soon be moving into Phase 2 of the easing of restrictions. The chances are, though, that there will be vociferous complaints that the easing does not go far enough, or fast enough. Concerns about children’s education, the state of the economy,

One of the main stories yesterday was the decision of Government ministers (in Scotland as well as England) to provide free school meal vouchers for the summer holidays. Holiday hunger (and term-time hunger) are very real  issues for many families – the situation has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, but it existed long before

How will it be when schools re-open? When will schooling be back to ‘normal’? What will be the immediate impact on pupils hoping to go to university, college or a career? What will the longer term impact be on all children who have lost out on an important part of their schooling this year, and