Scots wha hae: three great whiskies for Burns Night
It’s the Scottish bard’s brithday tomorrow, so raise a dram to the man with one of these fine whiskies
Golden drop: get into the spirit of Burns Night with a single malt. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Golden drop: get into the spirit of Burns Night with a single malt. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Sun 24 Jan 2021 01.00 EST
Douglas Laing Timorous Beastie Highland Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (£40, Waitrose) Is it possible to address a haggis via zoom? I guess a few of us are going to find out tomorrow night – and there’s no reason, with all the experience of socially distanced virtual celebrations that we’ve accumulated over the past year, that Burns Night 2021 can’t provide its usual burst of cosy wintry revelry. The whisky’s the thing, and, with apologies to the many superb distillers of Japan, Canada, Sweden, Wales et al, it really does have to be Scotch. Where to start? With its reference to Burn’s most famous
There is a character named William who appears in The Hanging Garden at three different ages: as an 8-year-old who is terrified of his father, as a fat 15-year-old and as a 25-year-old, now thin, who has returned for his sister s wedding. The peculiar thing is that the characters sometimes appear on the screen at the same time, and the dead body of the 15-year-old hangs from a tree during many of the scenes.
Well, why not? It may be magic realism, but isn t it also the simple truth? Don t the ghosts of our former selves attend family events right along with our current manifestations? Don t parents still sometimes relate to us as if we were children, don t siblings still carry old resentments, aren t old friends still stuck on who we used to be? And don t we sometimes resurrect old personas and dust them off for a return engagement? Aren t all of those selves stored away inside somewhere? The movie opens on a wedding day. Rosemary (Kerry Fox, from An Angel at My Table ), who has
JULIET NICHOLAS/NZ GARDENER/Stuff
For more than 150 years, trees have sheltered the farm’s gardens from the winds beating across the Canterbury Plains.
Winchmore, a lush mid-Canterbury garden, dates back nearly 170 years. When, in 1853, a George Hart took up 8000 hectares of plains on the north bank of the Ashburton River and established Winchmore Station, one of the very first things he must have done was plant trees – wellingtonias and oaks – say current owners of the now 200ha run, Bob and Marg Verrall. For which Marg is very grateful. “In 1853, there would hardly have been a tree in the Canterbury Plains. He showed great foresight.”