A FEW miles to the west of Thurso, in Caithness, along the A836 at Forss, there is a small wood. Not closely packed, regimented rows of Sitka spruce and lodge-pole pine, but proper trees: beech, oak, ask and sycamore.
In spring and early summer, celandine, snowdrop, crocus, bluebell and daffodil dance beneath their branches. Autumn is a riot of changing colours with the reds and russet of year's ending. Woodland birds flit and feed among the ancient trees with "tiny-eyed caution" and a thousand lives come and go, unheard, unseen.
"The best-ever opening weekend in terms of audience numbers and performances" is how Blas 2011 organisers have described a hugely successful first weekend which was marked by sell-out performances
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THE solitary stone sits alongside a couple of lonesome pines on a track high above the village of Cromdale on Speyside. Marked as Clach nam Piobair - the Piper's Stone - on the map, it is linked to the Battle of Cromdale in 1690.
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JOHN Mackay e-mailed in about the Picture Detective of 8th July after his sister sent him a copy of the article. The photo was taken of him and his gyrocopter at the Highland Air Show in the early 1980s. The gyrocopter is a Campbell Cricket, one of two he owned at the time.
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PRESSURE to lift the midnight club curfew in Inverness will again be in the spotlight this morning.
Members of the Highland Licensing Forum will raise the issue of the curfew, which stops customers entering late-night venues after midnight, at a joint meeting with the Highland Licensing Board.
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David Stewart is a Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands. Here he reminisces about his favourite Inverness Caledonian Thistle game, champions a facelift for ugly buildings in the city centre, and explains why he would take a tourist to the Clachnaharry Inn.
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WHEN the Borders book store went into administration two years ago, it also meant the closure of its in-house Costa Coffee shop.
Thankfully for the city's coffee lovers a new stand alone outlet opened up a short distance away from the old site sandwiched, excuse the pun, between Next and the Carphone Warehouse.
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