Fall under the spell of the Scots botanists’ alluring spirits imbued with the romance of the wilds
Resistance is futile when it comes to the romance of the wilds and foragers but Buck & Birch have it bottled.
For lovers looking for a potion to impress an amour this Valentine’s Day, the way to their heart could be any one of the award-winning liqueurs and spirits from the alchemists who put flavour first and season with spirit and turn the glorious fruits of our land and hedgerows into nectar.
Buck & Birch distil the very nature of the wild to produce a range of seductive tipples to drink neat, long or mixed – Aelder Elixir anyone? A gently warming wild elderberry liqueur best experienced reclining by a roaring fire.
Kick off the evening with a refreshing signature aperitif- The Wild Rose Spritz. Just pour 50ml Amarosa over ice and top with pink champagne or fizz for the most sparkling start to any date night.
Or a ready-mixed Thornstar Martini cocktail combining Amarosa rosehip rum liqueur, woodruff vodka, hawthorn syrup and sea buckthorn.
Then finish off the perfect romantic dinner with Ana, a birch syrup caramel liqueur for lovers of all things sweet.
If you just want to cut to the chase, combining food and drink in the perfect pairing, look no further than Rum & Cake, a wild spiced sipping rum infused with hogseed parkin and laced with molasses and Scottish spice, guaranteed to warm the cockles of any heart on a cold February night.
If dinner and drinks feel too predictable, give them a date to remember with a Distillery Tasting Session, meet the makers of Buck and Birch’s enticing range of spirits and liqueurs, sample the range with delicious wild snacks and learn all about the company, methods and ingredients because smart is sexy, right?
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, so they say – if meeting up in person is a challenge this year share the love with a gift and embrace your wild side with an Adventurer Cocktail Pack, a Wild Liqueur Taster Pack or a Wild Distillery Tasting Session voucher.
Buck & Birch Creative Director and co-founder, Tom Chisholm says: “There’s no better time to enjoy a taste of the romance of the Scottish countryside than Valentine’s Day.
“These are some of the most intriguing flavours, distilled with real passion. What better way to celebrate this feast day than with a message of love in a bottle?”
To view a full selection of drinks and gifts available or to book a distillery tour in The Tasting Room, visit www.buckandbirch.com
St James Quarter is giving all glam squads the weekend off as it gears up to host its first ever Love Beauty event from 10th to 13th February.
A one-off event you don’t want to miss, beauty Kings and Queens are invited down to St James Quarter to explore a range of inspiring makeup, skincare and fragrance workshops and consultations. Attendees will also have the opportunity to make the most of some exclusive Love Beauty discounts running across the whole weekend.
And it doesn’t stop there, Jamie Genevieve, expert makeup artist and founder of VIEVE, will be making an appearance as she hosts a one-off event on Saturday 12th February in partnership with HBeauty.
Jamie will reveal some of her most sacred top tips and showcase her makeup brand in an exclusive interview before answering any burning beauty questions the audience might have.
A number of St James Quarter’s top brands will be involved in the beauty inspired events over the course of the weekend including VIEVE at H beauty, Dior at John Lewis & Partners and MAC Cosmetics at Boots, as well as many more.
Kicking off from 9am each day, attendees can brush up on their skills with beauty demonstrations at & Other Stories, fill their bags with free samples from Clinique and Bobbi Brown counters in John Lewis & Partners and be the first to enjoy a brand new No7 product launch at Boots.
L’Occitane will also be debuting its very first ‘L’Occi Truck’. Showcasing beauty on the go, the four wheeled drive will be parked up in the main Galleria, near Register Square, and will be filled with everyone’s favourite beauty and skincare products.
Visitors can also take part in a variety of activities at St James Quarter’s SOOK space – an area designated to allow brands to create engaging and exciting offerings and connect with their customers on a more intimate level. From HydraFacial within Cavendish Clinic at John Lewis, hair demos with GHD to makeup tips from MAC Cosmetics at Boots, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
Gill Moore, Retail Director at St James Quarter, said: “What an event we have lined up. Love Beauty is a chance for everyone to come together and enjoy all our skincare, make-up and fragrance specialists we have within The Quarter.
“There will be a number of brands hosting exclusive events over the weekend including VIEVE in partnership with H beauty, Dior in John Lewis & Partners and MAC Cosmetics in Boots.
“Attendees can take this opportunity to really flaunt their own style, learn some new beauty tips and take advantage of all the fabulous deals and giveaways available over the weekend.
“We’re also extremely excited to be welcoming make-up icon, Jamie Genivieve, next Saturday to learn more about how she founded her successful makeup line, VIEVE.”
Activities will be taking place throughout The Quarter across the whole weekend. Keep up to date with the latest info via our Instagram page by following @StJamesQuarter
Nightmares involving murder, apocalypse, drowning and your teeth falling out are some of the most common subjects – however, they shouldn’t necessarily give reason to be worried or scared.
Leading dream expert and bestselling author, Theresa Cheung, has worked with bed retailer, Happy Beds, to reveal four of the most common nightmares and the reasons we have them.
“Every single dream is unique and unusual. There is no such thing as a ‘usual’ nightmare, even ones with commonly reported nightmare themes,” she says.
“These dreams mean that there are feelings or situations in your current waking life which you are having difficulty fully processing. You should not fear nightmares. Think of nightmares as a form of tough love.”
When it comes to the meaning of these dreams, it’s a lot less dramatic than you may think.
“Your dreaming mind is using shocking images because it knows you are more likely to recall them and ponder their meaning than everyday dreams.”
Theresa explained what four of the most common nightmares can mean:
Murder
A dream that involves a murder of some description can mean an unexpected change is being forced onto you.
Apocalypse
If you have a dream that involves the apocalypse it can be a sign that your subconscious feels that everything is shifting in your life and it’s time for a fresh start.
Teeth falling out
There could be more than one reason that you’re having nightmares about your teeth falling out. It could mean that you’re concerned about ageing or your appearance, or even that you have unexpressed anger inside.
Drowning
Dreams about drowning are very common and can be disturbing, however, they’re usually a sign that you’re feeling emotionally overwhelmed.
Whilst they may not be a cause for immediate concern, there are things you can do to help you avoid them.
Katherine Hall, a psychologist in sleep from Somnus Therapy, offered five useful tips to help avoid nightmares:
Consistency is key – You should keep your bedtime and wake time as consistent as possible. Consistency is likely to result in more restful and stable sleep, preventing the likelihood of a nightmare-inducing REM rebound from sleep deprivation.
Daily relaxation practice – Relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) can be incredibly useful in helping you to get to sleep and reducing the stress around not being able to sleep. PMR is a form of mindfulness that guides you through tensing each muscle group then relaxing them, to promote a sense of complete body and mind relaxation.
Expressive writing – Expressive writing has been shown to enable the writer to better regulate their emotions, as well as helping the writer break free from the endless mental cycling of brooding or rumination. Acknowledging your emotions and writing them down reduces the need for your mind to constantly fight and be in battle with any negative and stressful thoughts.
Avoid alcohol – Alcohol is a REM sleep blocker and causes an overall reduction in REM sleep – also known as dream sleep. When the alcohol starts to wear off it’s not uncommon to experience really vivid dreams or nightmares.
Seek treatment – When nightmares become a frequent occurrence and recurring, speaking with a professional may be the best option to help discover and treat the underlying issue.
To find out more about the most common dream meanings, click here.
Bill strengthened with new list of criminal content for tech firms to remove as a priority
List includes online drug and weapons dealing, people smuggling, revenge porn, fraud, promoting suicide and inciting or controlling prostitution for gain
New criminal offences will be added to the bill to tackle domestic violence and threats to rape and kill
Flagship UK laws to protect people online are being toughened up with new criminal offences and extra measures to force social media companies to stamp out the most harmful illegal content and criminal activity on their sites quicker.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced extra priority illegal offences to be written on the face of the bill include revenge porn, hate crime, fraud, the sale of illegal drugs or weapons, the promotion or facilitation of suicide, people smuggling and sexual exploitation. Terrorism and child sexual abuse are already included.
Previously the firms would have been forced to take such content down after it had been reported to them by users but now they must be proactive and prevent people being exposed in the first place.
It will clamp down on pimps and human traffickers, extremist groups encouraging violence and racial hate against minorities, suicide chatrooms and the spread of private sexual images of women without their consent.
Naming these offences on the face of the bill removes the need for them to be set out in secondary legislation later and Ofcom can take faster enforcement action against tech firms which fail to remove the named illegal content.
Ofcom will be able to issue fines of up to 10 per cent of annual worldwide turnover to non-compliant sites or block them from being accessible in the UK.
Three new criminal offences, recommended by the Law Commission, will also be added to the Bill to make sure criminal law is fit for the internet age.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “This government said it would legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online while enshrining free speech, and that’s exactly what we are going to do.
“Our world leading bill will protect children from online abuse and harms, protecting the most vulnerable from accessing harmful content, and ensuring there is no safe space for terrorists to hide online.
“We are listening to MPs, charities and campaigners who have wanted us to strengthen the legislation, and today’s changes mean we will be able to bring the full weight of the law against those who use the internet as a weapon to ruin people’s lives and do so quicker and more effectively.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “The internet cannot be a safe haven for despicable criminals to exploit and abuse people online.
Companies must continue to take responsibility for stopping harmful material on their platforms. These new measures will make it easier and quicker to crack down on offenders and hold social media companies to account.”
The new communications offences will strengthen protections from harmful online behaviours such as coercive and controlling behaviour by domestic abusers; threats to rape, kill and inflict physical violence; and deliberately sharing dangerous disinformation about hoax Covid-19 treatments.
The UK Government is also considering the Law Commission’s recommendations for specific offences to be created relating to cyberflashing, encouraging self-harm and epilepsy trolling.
To proactively tackle the priority offences, firms will need to make sure the features, functionalities and algorithms of their services are designed to prevent their users encountering them and minimise the length of time this content is available. This could be achieved by automated or human content moderation, banning illegal search terms, spotting suspicious users and having effective systems in place to prevent banned users opening new accounts.
New harmful online communications offences:
Ministers asked the Law Commission to review the criminal law relating to abusive and offensive online communications in the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003.
The Commission found these laws have not kept pace with the rise of smartphones and social media. It concluded they were ill-suited to address online harm because they overlap and are often unclear for internet users, tech companies and law enforcement agencies.
It found the current law over-criminalises and captures ‘indecent’ images shared between two consenting adults – known as sexting – where no harm is caused. It also under-criminalises – resulting in harmful communications without appropriate criminal sanction.
In particular, abusive communications posted in a public forum, such as posts on a publicly accessible social media page, may slip through the net because they have no intended recipient. It also found the current offences are sufficiently broad in scope that they could constitute a disproportionate interference in the right to freedom of expression.
In July the Law Commission recommended more coherent offences. The Digital Secretary today confirms new offences will be created and legislated for in the Online Safety Bill.
The new offences will capture a wider range of harms in different types of private and public online communication methods. These include harmful and abusive emails, social media posts and WhatsApp messages, as well as ‘pile-on’ harassment where many people target abuse at an individual such as in website comment sections. None of the offences will apply to regulated media such as print and online journalism, TV, radio and film.
The offences are:
A ‘genuinely threatening’ communications offence, where communications are sent or posted to convey a threat of serious harm.
This offence is designed to better capture online threats to rape, kill and inflict physical violence or cause people serious financial harm. It addresses limitations with the existing laws which capture ‘menacing’ aspects of the threatening communication but not genuine and serious threatening behaviour.
It will offer better protection for public figures such as MPs, celebrities or footballers who receive extremely harmful messages threatening their safety. It will address coercive and controlling online behaviour and stalking, including, in the context of domestic abuse, threats related to a partner’s finances or threats concerning physical harm.
A harm-based communications offence to capture communications sent to cause harm without a reasonable excuse.
This offence will make it easier to prosecute online abusers by abandoning the requirement under the old offences for content to fit within proscribed yet ambiguous categories such as “grossly offensive,” “obscene” or “indecent”.
Instead it is based on the intended psychological harm, amounting to at least serious distress, to the person who receives the communication, rather than requiring proof that harm was caused. The new offences will address the technical limitations of the old offences and ensure that harmful communications posted to a likely audience are captured.
The new offence will consider the context in which the communication was sent. This will better address forms of violence against women and girls, such as communications which may not seem obviously harmful but when looked at in light of a pattern of abuse could cause serious distress. For example, in the instance where a survivor of domestic abuse has fled to a secret location and the abuser sends the individual a picture of their front door or street sign.
It will better protect people’s right to free expression online. Communications that are offensive but not harmful and communications sent with no intention to cause harm, such as consensual communication between adults, will not be captured. It will have to be proven in court that a defendant sent a communication without any reasonable excuse and did so intending to cause serious distress or worse, with exemptions for communication which contributes to a matter of public interest.
An offence for when a person sends a communication they know to be false with the intention to cause non-trivial emotional, psychological or physical harm.
Although there is an existing offence in the Communications Act that captures knowingly false communications, this new offence raises the current threshold of criminality. It covers false communications deliberately sent to inflict harm, such as hoax bomb threats, as opposed to misinformation where people are unaware what they are sending is false or genuinely believe it to be true.
For example, if an individual posted on social media encouraging people to inject antiseptic to cure themselves of coronavirus, a court would have to prove that the individual knew this was not true before posting it.
The maximum sentences for each offence will differ. If someone is found guilty of a harm based offence they could go to prison for up to two years, up to 51 weeks for the false communication offence and up to five years for the threatening communications offence.
The maximum sentence was six months under the Communications Act and two years under the Malicious Communications Act.
Professor Penney Lewis, Commissioner for Criminal Law, said: “The criminal law should target those who specifically intend to cause harm, while allowing people to share contested and controversial ideas in good faith.
“Our recommendations create a more nuanced set of criminal offences, which better protect victims of genuinely harmful communications as well as better protecting freedom of expression.
“I am delighted that the Government has accepted these recommended offences.”
VOLUNTEER Edinburghare delighted to announce that we have opened the nominations for this years Inspiring Volunteer Awards 2022.
As always, every volunteer who is nominated will receive a certificate, and we will welcome a number of specially selected volunteers to an event hosted by Edinburgh’s Rt Hon Lord Provost at the City Chambers.
This event is being held during Volunteers’ Week (1 to 7 June), and this year the date for the ceremony will be on Wednesday 1 June.
Thanks again for your support in recognising the fantastic achievements of all our amazing volunteers in Edinburgh. These last two years we have seen and have a better understanding of the power of the volunteer.
Is there an individual or a group within your organisation that deserves an Inspiring Volunteer Award? Why not consider nominating them. We want to recognise and celebrate as many volunteers as possible!
Closing date for nominations is 1st April 2022 so don’t delay and nominate today!
For more information please follow the link below to Volunteer Edinburgh website where you can find nomination guidelines and additional info for each type of award.
Please help us to promote the awards nominations using the short url:
Experts from Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow will receive funding from Cancer Research UK to conduct ground-breaking work as part of a chain of research hubs around the UK.
The £12 million investment over the next five years will be used to accelerate the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre’s work into diagnosing and treating cancers which are among the most prevalent in Scotland, including bowel cancer, mesothelioma, liver cancer and brain tumours.
The Scotland Centre, comprising scientists from Edinburgh and Glasgow, has been chosen as one of just seven locations to secure funding in the latest review of the Cancer Research UK Centres network of excellence.
Understanding cancer
The work taking place in Edinburgh includes Professor Malcolm Dunlop and colleagues studying the faulty genes that underpin bowel cancer. Prof Dunlop’s team is aiming to understand how our genes influence the risk of developing the disease and the chances of surviving it.
Professor Steve Pollard and his team are developing potential new treatments for the most common type of brain tumour in adults, known as glioblastoma multiforme.
Professor Ian TomlinsonCo-Director, Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre, said: “This investment will give us the tools we need to deliver high quality research which will make the biggest difference for patients.
“It means we will be able to further develop our work in translational research – getting cutting edge discoveries from the laboratory to patients and learning as much as possible from patients to initiate new research.
Dr Iain Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation, Cancer Research UK, added: “This past year proves, more than any other, the value of investing in science and medical research, and what can be achieved with collective focus and collaboration.
“Just like science is our route out of the pandemic, science is our route to beating cancer. Despite the impact of the pandemic on the charity’s income, we are funding some of the best and most promising research in Scotland to help more people survive.”
The Fire Brigades Union has called for the Scottish Government to convene immediate multi-agency talks to try to find a solution to fire safety concerns in schools and the home.
The union has raised its concerns about the proposal to improve school classroom ventilation by undercutting school classroom doors which, in turn, could compromise the fire safety of classrooms putting students, staff and firefighters in danger.
The union also wants clarity over the newly rolled out Scottish Government legislation on interlinked fire alarms in the home, which became law on 1st February.
Ian Sim, FBU Scotland Regional Secretary said: “The safety of school students and staff, our members and the general public is paramount.
“At the moment there is too much uncertainty and mixed messaging over these two very important fire safety issues, in particular, the potential fire risk that comes from undercutting doors. The doors affected could potentially include fire doors.
“We need clarity and certainty over these plans and the Scottish government must now convene immediate multi-agency talks to establish the safest way forward.”
Extra £1 million will help people shape the services they need
A £1 million investment over two years will fund work with people with dementia and their families to design and shape the support they need following diagnosis.
The funding, part of the £120 million Mental Health Recovery and Renewal fund, will see the Scottish Government working with Age Scotland to enhance support giving people a bigger say in what works for them.
COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on people with dementia. Through this partnership with Age Scotland, the Scottish Government will grow the community support that have been so critical to people and their families during the pandemic.
Early investment will be focused on building community capacity with a small grant programme, with a broader community grant programme to follow in the second year.
Social Care Minister Kevin Stewart said: “During the latest phase of the pandemic I have listened to people with dementia and their families about the need for additional flexible support and investment to help address some of the particular challenges they are facing.
“COVID-19 has impacted all of us but I know just how challenging it has been for people living with dementia, their families and carers.
“Trying to reduce this impact is the basis of our Dementia and Covid Action Plan, which we have worked with a wide range of partners to implement, since its publication in December 2020.
“There is a lot of positive work to point to, and the pandemic has particularly highlighted the importance of community-led work, responding to local need. I want to build on this work and enable more local people and communities to design and shape the support they need.
“Through this partnership with Age Scotland we will invest an extra £1 million over two years to support local communities to do that.”
Brian Sloan, Chief Executive of Age Scotland, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the Scottish Government to deliver this funding, which will support the development of dementia-friendly communities across Scotland.
“The pandemic has compounded challenges faced by people living with dementia and their unpaid carers. This funding will help address some of these challenges by shaping communities that work for those who have lived experience of dementia.
“Our role is to bring the voices of carers and people living with dementia to the forefront as plans are developed, ensuring those voices are heard at every stage of the design and delivery process. By doing so, we can build communities that truly support and empower people living with dementia and those who care for them.”
