We went to Castle Douglas on Saturday morning, and what a contrast to Dumfries! They may not have the big name shops like New Look, Next, M&S, Watersons, WH Smith etc. (although they do have a Wilkinsons, how I’d love to see them move into the old Woolworths!), but neither do they have the rows of empty shops which are now such a feature of Dumfries High Street. I don’t remember seeing one empty unit in a High Street filled mainly with local shops, but with an excellent variety to choose from. Contrast that to the run up from Bank Street to the Midsteeple, which you’d think would be prime Dumfries Real Estate, but which now features 4 empty shops, or the once vibrant area around Woolworths with about as many, and maybe it’s time Dumfries thought about dropping their rates and encouraging some local shops back into the town center?

I’ve got a feature on the site which I’ve got the cheek to title “Site of the Month”. In reality, it the “Site of whenever I come across something I quite like”.  Chris Frear contacted me recently about his site, which features some stunning photographs from around rural Nithsdale, and, although it doesn’t strictly fit my usual criteria of being a site about Dumfries Town, I liked it enough to bend the rules a bit and make it the latest site of the month.

I know I go on about DG1 a lot, but it’s good to see it back to full operation after the work on the training pool was completed.  They’ve had a bit of a cheek still charging full price for the last few weeks, but I guess I could have voted with my feet and not actually gone.  Seemed to me a few people did just that, it will be interesting to see how many return now that the pools are fully functional again.