This week I have made it my mission to make at least fifty percent of the featured posts in the Roundup to be from Scottish bloggers who haven’t been featured here before. Thanks to everyone that answered my call out on Twitter this week. I’ve tried to include the best ones. If yours isn’t included it’s only because of the massive response- your blog will doubtless feature in later roundups.

My  secondary mission is to make the featured posts as diverse in content and subject matter as possible. We’ve got subject matter from news, cookery, health, parenting, personal stories, walking, tourism, interior design, photography technology and football.

Between the Hammer and the Anvil on Israel and Palestine

“Okay, let’s look at this from an unusual angle and see what we get out of it. Let’s say you were a cartoonish, Ahmadinejadesque lunatic fixated on destroying Israel. How would you go about achieving your goal?”

Read the full post here: http://flyingrodent.blogspot.com/2010/05/self-clowning-lunatics-strike-again.html

The Ben Lomond Free Press on Cumbria tragedy

“In 2006 who wrote this?

‘If legislation was a guarantee of greater public safety, this country would be the safest nation on earth.’”

Read the full post here http://bigrab.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/knee-jerk/

Caledonian Comment on media coverage of Cumbria Shootings

“Whatever these reasons may turn out to be, there are already the first signs of a disturbing media witch hunt beginning to be attached to this tragedy. ITV national news started it last night, voicing speculation not only about the late murderer’s mental state and access to firearms but also, most disgracefully, whether Cumbria police had “acted quickly enough” and whether they had been ‘up to the job’”.

Read the full post here http://www.caledonian-comment.com/?p=11226

Auld Reekie Rants on first dates

“Sadly, it dawned on me after about an hour that the girl I was after was not there. My mate Stuart was and we were both determined to make our final night at Linksfield a success. As the evening wore on, however, we remained probably the only two lads who hadn’t danced with anyone.”

Read the full post here htp://auldreekierants.blogspot.com/2010/05/31-may-1978.html

Martel Maxwell on WAGS

“A survey shows girls who used to count being a teacher, doctor or lawyer as something to aim for now want to marry rich and spend the spoils.”

http://www.martelmaxwell.com/#/blog/4538477181

Bletherskite on a trip round Loch Ness

“My son was excited to find a full knights costume in the shop which he wore the whole of the day, mostly with the visor down. He charged around the castle shouting “ATTTTAACK” everywhere he went.”

Read the full post here http://ht.ly/1SCs0

Lena the Hyena on Aberdeen City Councillors

“Molluscs – These are soft-bodied creatures and similar to arthropods are protected by hard outer shells. Mollusc elected members become shorter and fatter when confronted with an adversary and for many they retain this form for the remainder of their existence. This group holds a reputation for its slimy behaviour when challenged but often its most effective deterrent is its ability to bore.”

Read the full post here http://lenathehyena.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/aberdeen-city-councillors-a-biological-classification-2/

Islay Nat History

Photographs from Islay  http://islaynaturalhistory.blogspot.com/

Hopeman Man on David Bowie’s visit to Hopeman  and World Cup memories

“I wasn’t there that day but one hot summer afternoon in the mid-80s, David Bowie walked into the Hopeman cafe and ordered a cone. ‘Can I have an ice cream cone,’ he said in a David Bowie voice, for it was him …”

“The man in the Viking helmet sits next to me and lays down his crutches. He points at his leg in plaster and starts talking. I nod sympathetically, pretending to understand him. I don’t speak Swedish. Then I realise he’s speaking English….”

Read both posts here http://www.hopemanman.com/?p=452

…and here http://www.hopemanman.com/2010/06/my-world-cup-rescue-mission/

AnnieB celebrates an inquisitive mind over the traditional markers of success

“Last night everyone was upstairs so I was greeted by an empty hallway. On the wall next to the door was a framed certificate awarded to my friend for having ‘An Inquisitive Mind’”.

Read the full post here http://theskinnydippingchapter.blogspot.com/2010/05/inquisitive-mind.html

Little Mummy on her choice of voices for Sat Nav

“I can’t believe Nokia are suggesting I record my child’s voice so that I may receive directions from the little darling when she’s not present. Well let me tell you Nokia, I hear enough of her little voice thank-you-very-much…”

Read the full post here http://www.littlemummy.com/2010/05/28/satnav-voices/

Excellent photoblog Clinically Fed Up

See all posts here: http://clinicallyfedup.com/

Tim Nunn gets a visit from an often unwelcome bird

“Of course I shouldn’t resent the magpie its kill. If the young bird had left the nest too early its chances of survival were minimal. Even if it were a survivor it was still destined to be part of the food chain one way or another.”

Read the full post here  http://www.timnunn.com/2010/05/magpie/

Lisa Gordon Scott’s design and interiors blog Yeah OK Bye will make you want to rebuild your house

“Think of all the stuff you own that has emotional or historical significance,” says Court. “It’s just a matter of finding ways to incorporate them into your surroundings. This means you’ll end up with a home that’s distinctly yours, and not just a replica of a homewares catalogue.”

Read all posts here http://yeahokbye.blogspot.com/

Barry Dewar discusses Tweeting etiquette

“When you visit Facebook people speak relatively normally for instance but on Twitter, the prevalence of multiple hashtags, @s and shortened links make it pretty much impossible to read for the uninitiated.”

Read the full post here  http://barrydewar.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/mind-your-language/

Plan B has only been living in Scotland for 4 weeks- and is a wee bit homesick

“I am suddenly conscious that if I wander into town here, the only person I am likely to meet who knows my name is the postman, and he’s not going to care whether he sees me or not.  And although I hope, and believe, that both L and I will find new friends here, and that I will become part of this community, it is going to take time and work.  And the longer it takes, the worse the nostalgia will get. “

Read the full post here  http://isthereaplanb.blogspot.com/2010/05/return.html

Mummy Do That on bringing up bi-lingual children

“So I hope that whether or not you raise your children with more than one language, you will enjoy this selection of posts. Hopefully it’ll encourage some to start or continue the bilingual journey with their children, or you may get some new ideas how to make the trip that little bit more exciting for yourself and your children. “

Read the full post here  http://mummydothat.blogspot.com/2010/06/lets-hear-it-for-multilingual-kids.html

ShopaHolly on a women’s health issue that must be read by all of us in possession of a “hoohoo”

“I ummed and ahhed about whether or not to write this post due to it’s personal and somewhat graphic nature. However, I feel it’s for the greater good to speak up about these things so here goes.”

Read the full post here  http://shopaholly.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/when-vaginas-go-bad-a-totally-safe-for-work-post-that-doesnt-contain-pictures-of-broken-hoohoos/

In a Bun Dance on a kids’ book that is misunderstood

“You can see it’s a tale of cunning and the triumph of good over evil. Not in the slightest bit racist really. The boy in the story is little, called Sambo and he’s black. And, er, that’s it. More of a lesson about taking responsibility for your new clothes.”

Read the full post here  http://bundance.blogspot.com/2010/05/tigers-coming-to-tea-and-turning-to.html

A Place to Stand asks HOW MUCH for a new bridge??

“Holyrood is preparing a bill to build a new Forth crossing costing £2.3 billion(at least so we are told). The previous bridge, which was larger than this one, cost £19 million which, after inflation, is £320 million. This price is also comparable with other such projects around the world. So why the difference? “

Read the full post here  http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2010/05/forth-bridge-fraud-i-accuse-hoyrood-of.html

Writes of Way is in Jura
“As well as chewed up wrappers, the surfaces were covered in mouse pee and poo. Leaving food behind in a bothy is a bit of a negligent thing to do, but we thought perhaps the last visitors just forgot. However, a little later we discovered some broken bottles on the beach, which really pissed us off. “

Read the full post here  http://writesofway.com/

Needled is walking again in Islay

“Loving Islay as I do, I find myself strangely emotional when I think that it is now also now somewhere that will forever be associated with this important stage in my recovery: the moment that I first saw myself as a walker again. So to anyone who is toiling away at the lonely work of improving their mobility,”

Read the full post here  http://needled.wordpress.com/

Islay Blog has the full Islay Blog Round Up

“It won’t come as a surprise that the Islay Festival features in many blogs this week “

Read the full post here  http://www.islayblog.com/2010entries/20100531-roundup124.shtml

Dear Scotland writes a letter to England to read just before the World Cup

“I am Scottish – and I won’t be supporting you at the World Cup. I will be supporting Algeria, the USA, and Slovakia. Or maybe Slovenia – I can’t remember which one is in your group.”

Read the full post here  http://dearscotland.com/2010/06/03/dear-england/

A Wee Bit of Cooking does tomato curry

“With so much going on, I hadn’t been very adventurous in the kitchen, instead relying on simple dishes, old favourites and more than a few takeaways.  Last weekend, however, I got my cooking mojo back and had a super Sunday trawling through cookbooks old and new then tearing up the kitchen trying out new ideas.”

Read the full post here  http://aweebitofcooking.co.uk/2010/05/18/simple-tomato-curry/

Words to Good Effect does all things plume related

“…this is what “plume” has come to signify for us all in 2010…”

Read the full post here   http://wordstogoodeffect.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/la-plume-de-ma-tante%E2%80%A6/

I hope you’ve enjoyed discovering some new Scottish blogs and if your blog was featured why not nominate your favourite Scottish blogs next week.

Blog on!

Misssy M

What has happened to the blogosphere. Is everyone having a couple of weeks off or was that just me?

Yes, it was just me. I come home from foreign shores and hit the blogosphere to find out that not only has Stephen Gately died, but that my postcards will be getting home two weeks behind me if I’m lucky and they’ve let the racists on the telly in the first time since Carol Thatcher got the boot from The One Show or they stopped letting Prince Philip near a microphone.

First off, the postal strike. Andrew blames the Scottish Government for adding the the Post Office’s woes.

As for Nick Griffin on Question Time there was no one post that said it all- you were ALL talking about it. Moridura does a post mortem on the show. Mr Eugenides agrees with Mathew Parris’s assertion that freedom of speech is more important than worrying about the repercussions of giving the BNP a primetime platform on Question Time. Big Rab over at The Ben Lomond Free Press was not impressed with either Nick Griffin OR the other panellists on this week’s Question Time either. The Big Dollop echoes the freedom of speech argument for Nick Griffin appearing on the show. I have lived my life by the theory that one should ALWAYS get the mature lady’s opinion on anything, as my mother will testify. Luckily Subrosa gives “the mature lady’s” point of view on Griffin’s QT appearance: But what about mature men, don’t they have a say? Yes they do. The Angry Old Man puts the blame for an increase in BNP’s support squarely at Labour’s door. They might as well take it, they’re to blame for everything else anyway. I suspect they are even behind those horrible Irish twins still being in X Factor, the gits.

Still, I should watch what I’m writing and so should you all, I may say. We’re all being thoroughly scrutinised according to The Jury Team.

Clairwil looks at plans to make Trafalgar Square in London more Islamic. Nelson never struck me as the kind of man that liked his ladies covered up. It’ll never happen.

Meanwhile, Sgniteerg looks at where he thinks we are now on the question of Scottish independence.

Some people were not watching Question Time or worrying about the state of things. Or at least if they were, they weren’t blogging about it. Author and writer’s guru Nicola Morgan is the Simon Cowell of authors (in my mind, anyway). She gladly gives free advice to aspiring authors, being a successful author herself, but she won’t pull her punches, so fragile egos should watch out. Here she fiendishly dissects a tirade from a Struggling Author.

I’m all for bursting into spontaneously bursting into song and dance like I’m in a Busby Berkeley musical, it’s what has made me such an interesting neighbour. But now, apparently if you whistle a merry tune at work, or burst into song in the street, the Performing Rights Society can fine you. What, even if it’s not by Cliff Richard? Pirate Party has the lowdown.

Mr Farty continues his long running series of Computer Terms illustrated. Surely a coffee table book is in the offing?

Jaggy looks at the Boy in the Balloon incident but from a perspective of Internet versus TV. It’s like Batman versus Superman. But who won?

Aye, the nights are fair drawing in, so they are. Cat over at The Cat Girl Speaks adds dark nights to her dread-list of the months to come, but gets treated at the shops to help ease the pain.

Where the Mountains Meet the Sea has some beautiful seasonal photos up to remind us all that dark nights may be the downside of Autumn but beautiful landscapes are the best aspect of this time of year.

Over at Doctor V’s place, Duncan is on the verge of starting a support group for motorsport fans.

That’s all for this week. But, before the hounds are released ….One thing I found when editing the blog round up is that many bloggers out there are too shy and self deprecating to nominate their own posts, but you should. Fill in that wee form over there and blow your own trumpet. One correspondent messaged me to say he’d like to nom his own stuff but “it’s not political”. So I feel it’s incumbent on me since I’ve got the keys to the Round-Up penthouse this evening to say- the Scottish Round Up now has no categories, we accept all types of blog nominations from political, to travel, to humour, to personal, to photographic, to fiction to whatever you want to blog about.

Happy blogging, people!

Welcome to the snappily named Non-Political Roundup or the NoPoBloRo as I’m going to call it for the duration of the post in the hope that it might catch on.

First up is Gordon of One Man Blogs who found Christmas Shopping was not the relaxing spiritual journey he had hoped.

On a similar note, Big Rab of The Ben Lomond Free Press loses it over Christmas Muzak in them  there Dumbarton shops. I’m assuming he has Radio Scotland playing in his own pet shop at this time of year. The hamsters are calmed by the voice of Tom Morton, apparently.

And then there’s Loth, who isn’t as pleased as Aled Jones’s Mum was on hearing the news that her son is to join the school choir.

Quite rightly, Mr Farty is incensed at the standard of science teaching in our schools, but please, no one offer him a chemistry teacher’s job until my kids are safely out of the school system, eh?

It’s the time of year where lists abound in the press. Top ten this and that, best of that and this.  But who to trust? The Guardian? The NME? Q Magazine? Well, you could do a lot worse than have a look at Andy Learmonth’s Top Ten Albums of the Year. Not a Viva La Vida in sight. Lucky devil didn’t even have to pay for them, either.

Read the latest in Random Burbling’s series (a possible memoir in the making, Alan?) on his first year as a stand-up comedian. Remember, he does it so you don’t have to.

Over in Egypt, ex-pat Scot Trailing Grouse is worried about what Freud would say about her  first  etchings from her art class. Maybe she’s particularly worried that he’d say “Trailing grouse, I sink you are suffering from ze Pencil Envy”.  C’mon, I couldn’t resist….

To keep us all chipper until the Winter Solstice, Peter of the Naked Blog is posting a beautiful photo a day from his archives for you to do with what you will (and he’s also doing a little accompanying blog in case you think he’s just posting photos). None of those photos involve nakedness, as the blogname might suggest. But he maybe does requests.

On the subject of nudity, kind of, Cat over at The Cat Girl Speaks thinks that Glamour Magazine is living in a dream world with their pronouncement of the average amount of sexual partners a girl might have. That dream world being one filled with pretty dull dreams, then.

The banks have pretty much ruined everyone’s year, but now they’ve gone and ruined Billy The Kid’s Christmas as well. What a bunch of utter gits. What next? Bank tellers drowning puppies in the bank foyer?

The Scottish Patient pays tribute to Scotland’s greatest living poet, Edwin Morgan. If they ever find Nessie, you know it’s going to sound exactly like he said it would.

And will anyone notice if I cheekily stick one of my own posts in? Ah, well, forgive me, but it’s all in spirit of public service. Read my carefully researched Christmas Party Survival Guide and avoid no end of seasonal embarrassment. Don’t thank me, I’ll only get embarrassed.

Scots bloggers have, as usual, been busy documenting the issues of the day. A full dissection of the end of Woolworths has featured in the blogs of Jeffzycinski, IndyGal, Last Years Girl, Zippykins, Jack Deighton and The Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, amongst others. Firstly, how many of you had your first Saturday job there? Secondly how many of you pinched the odd Pick and Mix.  not me, officer, not me…

Talking of disasters, this time round Angry Steve is angry about the Edinburgh roadworks. Flippin’ trams better be like something out of Bladerunner, that’s what I say.

The Crayfish Diaries celebrates a first ever achievement. The world over people get crap haircuts, are shown them in a mirror and when asked if it’s okay, meekly reply “Yes, very nice”, then go home to cry and wait for it to grow back. Not this Crayfish!

Nintendo and Chocolate is having bum trouble. Would it be pushing it to suggest that she makes this a regular feature? Top tip: maybe don’t read whilst eating your tea.

Oh and we’ve a recipe from Islay!

And finally…the weather, as reported by  Man About the House. Check out his musings on snow and his beautiful photographs, not least the last one of the wee Christmas Elf.

It’s been a pleasure, treasures.

Merry Christmas.

Misssy M of The Misssives