The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that style, there is now this regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site including "Scottie's Photo Diary From Scotland".
To receive a text version of this newsletter as a reminder to look at these Web pages when they are published, just send an e-mail to Scottie@RampantScotland.com with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
Edinburgh Christmas Decorations 2011
Last year, due to snow disrupting my travel plans, I didn't manage to get to photograph the Christmas decorations in Scotland's capital city. This year I not only managed to get to Edinburgh but also took some photographs of the decorations in the city centre during daylight as well as at night. So there are three different collections to view:
Scottie's Diary
A selection of the graphics, taken in daylight and at night, in the "photo diary" format. This allows me to add some text to explain a few aspects of the subject of each graphic. It starts with a few of the pictures taken in daylight and then moves on to the night-time shots. See: Scottie's Diary - Edinburgh Christmas Decorations 2011
Youtube Slide Show - Edinburgh Christmas by Night
The Rampant Scotland Channel on YouTube has a slide show on the Christmas decorations in Edinburgh at night with the pictures from the diary page as well as some additional graphics. The slide show is accompanied by some festive music tracks. See Youtube Slide Show - Edinburgh Christmas by Night
Youtube Slide Show - Edinburgh Christmas by Day
Having taken so many photos it seemed sensible to divide them up and create a separate slide show of those taken in daylight. Once again, there is background music based on traditional Christmas Carols. See Youtube Slide Show - Edinburgh Christmas by Day
Glasgow Christmas Decorations
I haven't yet been to photograph the Glasgow Christmas scenes at night. But don't worry, I'll be making the short trip soon and will have a similar series of pictures of Christmas in Scotland's largest city in the next newsletter! I've got a selection of pictures taken in daylight already!
Christmas in Scotland
As a result of the church Reformation in the 16th century, the celebration of Christmas was banned in Scotland because it was associated with the Roman Catholic church. That attitude lasted for nearly 400 years and even in the middle of last century, Christmas Day was a normal day of work for many people - or, at best, they got off after midday! So you could say that if there is a specifically "Scottish" aspect to Christmas, it is that it was not celebrated - and goes some way to explaining why Hogmanay is still a bigger celebration in Scotland! Some time ago, in response to a question about how Christmas was celebrated here, I added a page in the "Did You Know" section on Christmas in Scotland (and another one on New Year / Hogmanay of course!) See Did You Know? Christmas in Scotland.
Scottish Book Store
With Christmas only just over three weeks ago, you may have all your Christmas presents bought. But if not, maybe the Rampant Scotland book store (which is full of books about all aspects of Scotland), could give you some ideas! See Scottish Book Store - US Version (with links to Amazon.com or Scottish Book Store - UK Version (with links to Amazon.co.uk) .
Errant Nights
The latest addition to the book store page is an exciting novel by mountaineer and father of mountain rescue Hamish MacInnes. He has put his knowledge of mountain climbing and experiences on Scottish peaks in winter into writing a tense and exciting tale based on places he knows well in Scotland. Two ex-Special Forces officers (and a glamorous marine archaeologist) go searching for Templar treasure but come up against competitors who will stop at nothing to beat them. Courage, ingenuity and some high tech equipment are on their side, however. See Errant Nights
Next Newsletter
With Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve falling on a Saturday this year, I thought that readers would be too busy with their own festive celebrations to want to have a Scottish Snippets Newsletter as well... So the next newsletter is scheduled for 7 January 2011.
Merry Christmas and a guid New Year to you and yours - and mony may ye see!
Yours aye
Scottie
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in an Archive. The Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
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