Residents in the Shetland Isles are being advised to get out more and reap the benefits of better health.

According the local GPs up there, who’ve been ‘prescribing’ a dose of outdoor communing with nature, plus medication and therapy, its a good way of reducing depression and anxiety.

But there’s more to it than just the bracing Shetland air – apparently the inhalation of phytoncides (oils) from plants, triggers the release of serotonin, the so-called ‘happy hormone’, which in turn makes patients feel better by dropping their blood pressure and raising cortisol levels.

Matt’s a jet-setter

IT’S a small world for livestock breeders these days and veteran Highland cattle enthusiast Matt Auld, stockman for Glasgow City Council’s Pollok fold, is in much demand.

Quite the jet-setter, Matt in not long home from judging the Swiss national breed show in Bern, where he reports that the cattle were very much up to standard at the top of the tree. “The quality was guid,” he told The Raider, “and maybe the only wee thing they need to work on is bringing them out better.”

But there won’t be much time to hide the passport away in his Kilmaurs home, as Matt is off to judge the French National Highland Show soon too.

No doubt, there will be some yodelling done there too!