Every early morning, just to wake up and put coffee on the stove...*

Ok, a pot of tea then.

Woke up early today, no alarm, unassisted by girning children. How pleasant. Still under the duvet I thought to catch the shipping forecast at 5.54 but it must only be on long wave...no matter, an excellent feature followed the six o'clock news. A programme of the type only the BBC can do well, 'Open Country' all about the Snowdon mountain railway, complete with presenter's mic background sound effects of clanking wheels, noisy workmen and rain lashing the carriage windows.

The feature was ostensibly about the struggle to build a new visitor centre at the summit to replace what Prince Charles called 'the highest slum in Wales'...what does he know about slums...or Wales?

It was a lovely, soothing piece which had the strange and for me hitherto unknown effect of making me want to visit Wales. Well, the mountain railway at any rate. The construction director rather touchingly referred to the previous building - buried in stone to help it blend in - as 'like a war bunker meets Macchu Picchu'...I'm sold!

Aztecs...lovely, isn't it?

This audio delight was followed at 6.30 by Radio Scotland's excellent Out Of Doors, another 'out and about' programme. Today's offering began with a trip to the whisky Mecca that is Islay to see the rebirth of the 'farm distillery'.

Such descriptive language has always been the preserve of the Beeb's factual radio output but nonetheless, it's always heartening to hear phrases like 'phenolic qualities' and 'magnificent esters' before 7am. The Kilchomain (and yes, I'll check that spelling later) farm distillery hopes to produce an 'expression' - which seems to be the malt whisky equivalent of a wine vintage - with 100% local barley, so local in fact as to come from the field opposite the still shed. That, we were told will be seriously rare stuff, for the collectors' market. The regular stuff - still super rare - will be a 25-75% mix, the larger share still impressively local, keeping the carbon welly-print down by coming from just the other side of the island.

The whole process seems cyclical, organic and inherently sensible - 'waste' products and by-products of the distilling process being used bsck on the farm as either feed or fertiliser.

The 'water of life' providing enjoyment for the drinker, sustenance for the beasts, nourishment to the land and an income for the locals...as it once was, so it ever shall be.

* Roddy Woomble - "Every line of a long moment"

Friend or foal?

The brain works in mysterious ways. Why is it that when you're at your most tired, your brain can sometimes decide it wants to stay switched on and run through all your thoughts and anxieties like a toddler rifling through a card-index system?

I woke up about ten past six this morning and put the radio on to see if I could drift off with a bit off background noise...Radio 2 was still tuned in from the God's Jukebox show but early morning Radio 2 has never been a favourite of mine, some bloke I can't even be bothered to Google wittering on about how dreadful the Christmas shopping crowds would be today. Really? Well there's a shocker...

Radio Scotland it was then for the ever-informative and strangely comforting Out of Doors. Always entertaining and, as I said, a great source of "well I never..." type items. Today's scoop: horses 'whinnies' are recognisable by other horses. Aside from the comedy use of the word 'whinnies,' this I suppose, should have been fairly self explanatory; horses - herd animals by nature - recognise their friend's voice. So far, so straightforward.

To the good bit: researchers at Sussex University have discovered, using the most incredibly complex scientific methods (leading horses behind a screen!) that horses expect to see a particular horse when they hear its 'voice'. When the Sussex team played Trigger (for want of a better horse name) a recording of Dobbin (ditto), Trigger's not insubstantial ears would prick up. When the men in white coats then led in - from behind that screen - Mister Ed, Trigger would look decidedly confused and stare, in the way humans do, for just a little bit longer than might be considered polite, before raising the equine equivalent of an eyebrow.



How much would people pay to see that? A confused cuddy, a discombobulated donkey. Brilliant. The researchers didn't say whether if it was a matching voice/horse pairing, the two would greet each other warmly by shaking their manes and scraping their hooves. There must be a paper in that. I think we should be told...