THE champion Blackface at last weekend’s re-arranged Bute Show was so desperate to get to his first ever show, he didn’t wait for his exhibitors, the legendary Sanny McKirdy and his protégé Nick Docherty, to take him to the event. The Midlock-bred shearling, along with a couple of flock mates, decided to take the bus! That’s how it must have looked to passers-by on show morning at the island’s Kerrycroy bus shelter, where three tups could be found in the shelter after escaping from their field. Not to be outdone, our resourceful heroes quickly positioned Sanny’s white van at the door of the shelter and loaded them there – much to the amusement of the local police force who drove passed just as the loading commenced.

The moose on the stick

I HAD the good fortune to have one of the best examples of the stickmaker’s art pass through my hands last week – and it was a wonder. The award-winning stick was obtained from Dennis and Linda Wall, who are well-known stickmakers from Ulverston, in the Lake District, for a friend on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Its feature carving was of a harvest mouse, amid two stalks of wheat, with the detail almost unimaginable that it and the handpiece of the crook had been crafted from a single piece of wood. The upshot of it all was that Renfrewshire’s John Sharp is now the recipient of a stick that will allow him to leave his nickname of the ‘moose on the wheel’ behind and go walking instead!

Drew the poo

SOMETIMES things come in threes. Recently, we had a picture on our front cover of cows being brought down from the hill on Knoydart – it went kinda viral – then, The Raider went to the same peninsula for a fishing holiday. Then up pops Knoydart again this week on Paul Murton’s Grand Tours of Scotland’s Lochs. The common (and I use the word ‘common’ advisedly) thread was Ayrshire-man turned Knoydart resident, Drew Harris. He took the photo, was present at the ‘fishing’ and sang on the telly programme. If he sticks in at all this, he could turn oot all right – in between cleaning the toilets as part of his remit of ‘harbour master’, of course!