Blogs

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We don’t have a hotline to Mystic Meg when we write our business blogs but a little bird tells us that the outlook for Scotland’s property market in 2022 is sunny. No dark clouds edging in from the outskirts even, albeit things might move at a slightly less frenzied pace compared to 2021.

 What kind of garden centre would we be if we didn’t offer you some gardening tips every now and again and in the second of this series of blogs we turn our spotlight on preparing your garden for spring.

Nelly Furtado imagined she was like one, they roam paradise with butch queen realness, and they're some of the most colourful characters in our garden wildlife. Why not show them some love by getting involved in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch from 28 to 30 January 2022!

St Valentine. No relation to Trish Valentine from axed 90s soap Eldorado. We’re talking the patron saint of love, marriages and engaged couples here, but beekeepers, plague, fainting, travelling are also his province. Perhaps that’s why he ate honey with the lights off, always had to look away from Judith Chalmers, and carried smelling salts in his glove compartment. But enough about him, let's press on with this most romantic of blogs.

Should your business be on TikTok? It’s the fastest-growing social media platform of the decade, and by running its first live shopping and entertainment event this month called ‘On Trend’ where people can buy products directly on the platform, TikTok is now also tapping into the rise of social shopping.

Renting a house, flat, or student accommodation? Your hands aren’t as tied as you might think when it comes to transforming its interior so that it’s got more personality than a gas bill because there are simple, non-permanent ways to add a little flair to make your rented accommodation homelier without busting your budget.

  Why spend a scary amount of money on Halloween decorations when you can make some that will really do the trick (or treat)?

Feast your eyes on this lot for some homemade hints.

After talk of a boom in Scotland’s property market and a record high average house price of almost £200,00 back in the summer, it’s time for all the latest on the property market in Scotland to see what shape the pandemic has left it in.

The big snowy-white hand of winter icicle fingernails and all is knocking so time to get your garden ready for the toughest season of all.

Winter. Season of exhilarating rides.

But it can rage against your bike by mucking it up and accelerating the wear and tear.

A little extra maintenance and vigilance can help you and your wheels survive the winter, components, tyres etc intact

Whether you’re a sceptic or a full-on believer in astrology and the influence of the stars on our lives and us all being connected (a galaxy really does resemble the human eye though, doesn't it! ), we thought we'd have some fun and see what's written in the stars to help you buy the best possible gift for baby based on their star sign! 

There’s still time to squeeze in a splurge of bikepacking in Scotland or across the UK before summer turns to dust - even internationally if your wanderlust is strong.

A park run with your jogging pram might sound like something you’d see in Central Park not Kelvingrove Park or any other park in for matter. But think again buster. This is a phenomenon that has already captured the imagination of parents everywhere..  

Mother Nature might not be missing us as much as we’re missing her while the great outdoors are strictly rationed during Covid-19. Still, as soon as normalcy returns, we won’t be alone in feeling frisky at the prospect of roaming free again. 

A giant cheddar cheese wheel weighing over 1,000 pounds was one of Queen Victoria’s wedding gifts. Legend has it that following the nuptials courtiers would whisper ‘here comes Cheddar Gorge’ as she approached because the wheel was gorged on nightly.

Scotland’s mountain bike trails have put it on the mountain biking world map. Here are some top trails that we reckon you should acquaint your rubber with. 

Birch. Crab Apple. Mountain Ash. Holly. All trees loved by common garden birds like Robins, Goldfinches, Blackbirds, Starlings  – and the Galloway Woodlands’ team know that the struggle to find food during winter is real.  

Halloween’s the time for letting the spirit of craft move you to make spooky stuff – even if it’s just a simple pom-pom with some oversized googly eyes stuck on it. And what better place to showcase all that blood, sweat and tears than a Halloween tree! 

A real Christmas tree is your surefire way to a cracking Christmas, and as you demolish the Quality Street, you can take comfort from the fact that at least a real Christmas tree is good for your health!

There’s a property boom happening right now in case you hadn’t noticed, and if you’re a first-time buyer you might be torn between wanting to get on the property ladder and being a wee bit paralysed by fear at what’s involved. Thank heavens for our business blogs. 

Who doesn’t feel like springing into action in spring? Wee lambs are pronking in the fields and nature’s looking all clean and bright and so will your home once you start decluttering without the added trauma of throwing stuff away that like it or not you’re attached to. 

Virtual tours of letting properties were born out of necessity during lockdown and they’re still being snapped up in a flash just as soon as the ad goes live. Estate and letting agents were just as quick off the mark investing in the right equipment at the time to produce virtual tours to keep the cogs of the machine turning when physical viewings in both homes to let and homes for sale were deemed unsafe.

If you’ve ever had an attack of guilt in your garden, bread in hand, because of a flashback to a notice forbidding you from feeding it to waterbirds at ponds, read on.

The great outdoors didn’t look so great in January. The icky weather made swapping the wild blue yonder with trying to beat the daily lockdown blues a sad reality for many and you’re not alone if your daily walk became a casualty of the mid-winter slump.

Good lighting. The reason for loads of fruitless Tinder and Grindr dates. The pictures sold heaven-on-a-stick but the reality wasn’t even halfway there. There are people making other people look better for a living through the power of light: lighting designers. 

Let’s start with the most dramatic reason for a spring clean. Most accidents happen in the home and while this is highly unlikely, going over and above by putting stuff in storage reduces the risk of you tripping up on it and injuring yourself. Even minor toe-stubbing incidents are enough to send you hurtling toward the freezer in search of Viennetta to either smear on it or eat. 

The toothbrush. The world’s first ATM. The Internet. For a relatively small island, the UK is big on innovation and if you’re an SME that is researching and developing new processes or products, or improving upon pre-existing ones then you need to know about SME research and development (R&D) tax credits.

Christmas in July? Is the anxiety creeping up the back of your neck already? Won’t the Christmas cake icing turn into a big white sludgy mess? What about Santa’s sleigh? Does he have a solar-powered electric one on charge as a backup? 

Never mind those billionaires blasting off into space. Spare a thought for the birds because they don’t just need our care when it’s cold - the summer months also bring feeding and watering challenges.  

 Are you cheugy? It’s Gen-Z’s latest insult for uncool millennials that try too hard. Pronounced chew-gee, it was coined on TikTok by a 23-year-old, and guess what’s high on the list of offending lifestyle choices? Fairy lights! 

  Eco-friendly shopping is here to stay folks and you’ll be greener than Kermit after a spinach and kale smoothie once you embrace what we’re doing because the future is sustainable. On stilts. 

  A mystery psychic medium from the depths of Galloway once claimed that Bear Grylls was a lollipop lady in a former life.  

The wonderful thing is either one of these incarnations and everybody in between can walk, cycle, take to the treetops, play water sports, ride horses, and wild camp in the many forests that form the backbone of Scotland’s great outdoors. 

Find the right activities for you right here…  

 In the early days of Breakfast TV before Piers Morgan was allowed anywhere near a studio, there was TV-AM. It was the early 80s and 1950s film star Diana Dors, dubbed the British Marilyn Monroe, was on it plugging her weight loss and healthy eating tips including a weekly weigh-in on those big red scales you used to see in supermarkets and at the seaside. 

 It’s 60 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in orbit. Are you contemplating the vastness of space or lack of it in your office because it needs a good clear out ahead of it's back to work we go as Covid restrictions ease? 

   With travel restrictions easing and the lure of the open road, you don’t want a set of wheels that resemble a wheelie bin. Time to think about spring cleaning your car. 

 What is it about chocolate and the British love affair with it? If you look hard enough at the Bayeux Tapestry someone’s eating a Twix. 

‘Shop Local’ is a new Community Chest card in Monopoly as part of the board game’s first major revamp in 85 years to better reflect what community means today. Fans can vote for it and other new cards but how else can you support small businesses without spending money? 

 Easter falls on Sunday 4th April this year so it’s Easter decorating time folks.

Decorating isn’t limited to Christmas these days and whether we’re opening the door on this world for you for the first time or you’re filing your nails muttering ‘tell me something I don’t know buster' you must read this blog for cracking Easer decorating tips.

Everybody wants everything yesterday today. That’s why your business needs fast internet speeds to sharpen its competitive edge. 

Let’s break down what internet speeds are, the difference between uploads and downloads, then look at which internet speeds are required for various business activities. 

Weighing in at an eye-watering 8.5 Kg the UK holds the record for the world’s largest onion. 

Who said Britain’s no longer great? 

The crowd at Harrogate Flower Show had to be held back from squeezing and smelling it and at twice the size of grower Tony Glover’s head, there would have been plenty to go round had there been a stampede.  

It's British Pie Week folks. What do Jane Austen and Banksy have in common? Both are on record as being big pie lovers - a little bird tells us that it was going to be Pies and Prejudice until Jane thought better of it. 

Give a man a reputation as an early riser and he can sleep 'til noon, said Mark Wright. 

Perhaps you had to read that twice because you had a late one. 

It was Mark Twain that said it.

Businesses large and small must get ready for the BT 2025 Switch Off because this is when the telecoms provider will cease its ISDN and PSTN services. 

To act or not to act? That is the question...

But what’s the Swahili for ‘Bungalow’?  

Can you water-ski while flossing your teeth?  

You need as many strings to your bow as possible in the acting game. Welcome to the second of our career blogs.

The predicted post-lockdown summer staycation boom is the shot in the arm the UK needs and it’s time to start thinking about cleaning your caravan for the season after a spell in storage perhaps.

 Were you Elizabeth l in a past life or were you a flea on her dog? 

What does this have to do with you not writing off a career as a writer? 

Mother Nature might not be missing us as much as we’re missing her while the great outdoors are strictly rationed during Covid-19, but as soon as normalcy returns, our team won’t be alone in feeling frisky at the prospect of being outdoors in nature.

Bubble. A word we’ve all heard loads more during the pandemic, but today we’re talking about the housing market bubble in 2021 and what you need to know about house prices if you’re selling your home. 

 Richard Branson had several cracks at the whip before finally starting a business that made any money. He must be kicking himself that he never thought to call us because if you’ve got a cracking business idea we’ve got the storage solution.

  Bed.  Couldn't you just climb on top of that cosy little word and take a nap? If you're nodding or about to nod off you could be one of millions of sleep-deprived zombies in search of the dark... 

  Good accountants know their onions but accountancy is more than just numbers.  Catherine the Great had an insolvent father and wasn't that great with money either. When she wasn't locking up her hairdresser for blabbing about her wig she was paying her accountant to help her fund the wooing of lovers.