Front cover of the new issue of Art and Research, published yesterday.

Five centimetres of snow fell last night. Not much to the countries that are still used to heavy dustings of snow over high ground, but to coastal Scotland this has become very unusual over the past two decades. As you can see from the related link, the rural highland economy benefits from their five small ski centres, but in recent years the reliability of high snowfall has become less and less. However one hopes that this latest cold-snap, although bad for the domestic heating bill, may at least support livlihoods further North.

Selkies (or silkies) are part of the folklore of coastal North Scotland and Ireland. Selkies are seals that can shed their skin to reveal a human form which allows them to take lovers from from the land.