The nights are drawing in and, while walking the dogs of an evening, I find that I’m encountering more and more people wearing head torches as they stumble around the local lanes.

They frequently get quite close before starting in surprise, tripping and cursing – because there is no doubt that wearing a torch actually reduces, rather than improves, their field of vision. While a bright beam illuminates the short space in front of their feet, it also plunges everything else into darkness…

I’m one of those annoyingly happy people who loves the place where they work.

Few destinations match the appeal of Kelso Racecourse, which makes it difficult to find anywhere to go away on holiday. While that hasn’t figured high on my list of problems during the 2020 stay-at-home-athon, it didn’t stop me getting quite excited when I spotted the perfect place for a future relaxing break…

To plant a Cedar of Lebanon takes a very special kind of generosity. The trees, which grow to more than 100 feet tall, take decades to mature and are a gift to be enjoyed by future generations.

It is just one of the reasons that I have so much admiration for Alfred Day who not only created the figure-of-eight steeplechase track at Fontwell Park, but also planted an intricate garden that featured a box maze, yew topiary and a beautiful cedar tree.

When it comes to weighing things, accuracy is a relative concept.

So three-quarters of an ounce makes quite a big difference if you’re buying a bag of Liquorice Allsorts, not so much if you’re weighing a horse.

Having been interviewed for a local TV news feature recently, I’ve been receiving feedback. The people that care about me most had two main questions: what’s with the Rupert-the-Bear scarf and why was your hair brushed forward like that?

A recent report by the National Audit Office has indicated that banknotes worth £50 billion appear to have gone missing. It said that there is little reliable information regarding the whereabouts of the notes which are not used in transactions or held as savings.

It could be that they’ve been taken overseas, tucked away in homes or that they are being used in the ‘shadow economy’. I’ve checked under my mattress and they are not there.

The chances of a healthy white male of my age dying in the next year is roughly 300/1. Whether you think those odds are high or low may depend on whether you work with me (in which case it’s possible you think the odds should be much shorter) or upon your attitude to risk and your experience of gambling…

They say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but that’s not strictly true. The grass on the track at Kelso has been lovingly tended so that it is now a dark shade of ‘ICI’ green…

It’s been a week of revelations: finger-lickin’ is no longer good, EastEnders isn’t real and racecourses don’t make any money…

Nineteen horses completed the computer generated Virtual Grand National in April this year, ten fell, seven refused and four jockeys were unseated. You could argue that the proportion of completions was about right and that the algorithm used was a good one.

But then I’m sure that John Swinney and Gavin Williamson thought that the algorithms developed for awarding exam grades this month were equally as effective…