Good News Scotland: Positive news stories that trumped 'Awful April'
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IT'S safe to say that April didn't have the most auspicious of starts.
I mean, it was literally dubbed 'awful April' – a well-earned moniker given households across the UK and Scotland have faced across-the-board increases in their bills.
Energy? Aye. Water? Check. Council Tax? Uh huh. Mobile and broadband? You bet. TV license and car tax too? You get the gist.
READ MORE: Radiohead musician cancels UK shows over 'credible threats'
But while April may have started off poorly, it certainly had some bang for your buck (apologies) on the good news front.
So, Donald Trump announced a whole shed load of tariffs against countries worldwide.
That's not the good news, but I did love how a group of penguins in Scotland reacted to it.
(Image: The Penguins in the Wall)
A group of clay penguins which popped up in holes in a wall along Glasgow's Kelvin Walkway took a stand and staged a protest.
This was because the US president included a group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica — home only to penguins — in his list of countries and territories to be hit by the tariffs.
Good old-fashioned solidarity and humour in the face of bad news.
When I was despairing at the start of April, the images and video from my colleague Lucy's trip to go see the Highland cows in Pollock Park cheered me up.
(Image: NQ)
The public can see the park's herd just a short walk away from the Burrell Collection museum. You're welcome.
This may have made the cut as it was one of my childhood favourite books. But I also like to see Gaelic being championed.
And so it has, with the first Scottish Gaelic translation of JRR Tolkien's classic The Hobbit completed by a University of Aberdeen professor.
(Image: Archive/University of Aberdeen)
Moray Watson, a professor of Gaelic and translation and a lifelong Tolkien fan, began working on a Gaelic version titled A' Hobat prior to the Covid lockdowns.
After many phases of editing, the book is available to order, complete with an afterword explaining why Watson chose the word "hobat" to translate "hobbit".
I was also heartened to see that a new Palestine museum is set to open in Edinburgh through a US-based organisation.
(Image: Palestine Museum US)
The Palestine Museum US was founded by Palestinian American businessman Faisal Saleh, who said they "couldn't have found a better location" for their first European location.
The team is to take over the former Arusha Gallery on Dundas Street, where it will be run by local volunteers.
On a post on social media, it was announced doors will open on May 17.
This month was also undeniably a scorcher, evidenced by this rare cloud-free photo of Scotland captured by satellite.
Finally, researchers have discovered that carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs 'mingled' amongst each other 167 million years ago after finding rare footprints on the Isle of Skye.
According to newly identified tracks, despite being prehistoric predator and prey, massive meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs drank together from shallow freshwater lagoons on the Isle of Skye.
The 131 footprints at Prince Charles's Point on Skye's Trotternish Peninsula makes the site one of Scotland's largest and rarest in the world.
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