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A Highland Blend

| Promoting Caithness

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Christmas

A Caithness Christmas Shopping Guide | PopUps, Private Shopping and more!

November 30, 2020 by Susan Barrie Leave a Comment

As I’ve referred to in a previous post, Christmas will not be the same this year due to the Coronavirus. Even though there’s recently been encouraging news about the vaccines that that are going through approval processes, for this year businesses have had to adapt, and at the forefront of my mind has been how…

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Filed Under: Business blog posts, NC500 Tagged With: Christmas, pop up shops, private shopping appointments, shopping guide

8 ways to prepare for a COVID Christmas in Caithness

October 15, 2020 by Susan Barrie 4 Comments

With all of life at the moment, things are strange and not how we’d necessarily want them to be. Due to COVID, we can’t get together with loved ones, and this year, Christmas will be very different. For small businesses too, it’s an uncertain time, as many creative folks rely on sales from events and…

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Filed Under: Business blog posts Tagged With: caithness, caithness market, Christmas, christmas planning, covid, social content planning, we wish you a merry caithmass

What I’ve learned from local businesses in Caithness

September 25, 2020 by Susan Barrie Leave a Comment

As I set out on my own business journey (see here for how I’m now working with local businesses in Caithness to strengthen their online promotion), I’m really keen to learn from other local businesses. In today’s feature, I’ve gathered the thoughts of four business women on how the region of Caithness shapes their offering,…

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Filed Under: Business blog posts Tagged With: business blog, caithness, caithness chocolate, Christmas, coastline, festive season, Haven House Art, Lark & Lily Designs, promotions, small business, tips for starting a business, tourist tips

Christmas Dreaming

November 25, 2015 by Susan Leave a Comment

It’s now just one month until Christmas and one of the things I try and make time for in between buying and wrapping presents, making and writing cards, and enjoying festive celebrations with my work colleagues, is of course making and crafting. I find it a good idea to plan ahead in making both festive…

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Filed Under: foodie Tagged With: Christmas, dreaming, SWIG

Christmas Roundup

December 28, 2014 by Susan Leave a Comment

Christmas in the Barrie household was a very relaxed affair. After heading to church in the morning and taking the pooch for a walk along the canal, we opened our presents and enjoyed Christmas ‘linner’ (as it was 3pm, it was neither lunch nor dinner) and lots of time watching Christmas films and TV. Here’s…

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Filed Under: Archive Old Posts Tagged With: Christmas

A festive wander in London

December 22, 2014 by Susan Leave a Comment

Apologies for the radio silence over the last few days, lots of Christmas preparations and festive goings on have been taking up lots of the Barrie time in the past few weeks, and so posts will be a little sporadic now until the new year. I’ll take this time to wish you and yours a…

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Christmas, London

Quick Homemade Christmas Gift: Chocolate Bark

December 8, 2014 by Susan Leave a Comment

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has seen masses of ideas for homemade Christmas gifts  floating around the interwebs. One of the very very easiest and customisable gifts to make is Chocolate Bark. For our annual Christmas gathering (which is a tradition amongst Mr B’s uni friends) I wanted to do simple and yummy…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bark, chocolate, Christmas, gift, homemade, sweet

Christmas Bundt Baking

December 5, 2014 by Susan Leave a Comment

Last night was the second meeting of Let’s Bake Inverness (see what I made for the first meeting here) and it was a great gathering. We had a few cancellations unfortunately on the day so we were a small group, but there was still a lot of good quality Christmassy bakes! My contribution was a…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baking, Christmas, lets bake inverness

A quick Christmas glitter craft

November 25, 2014 by Susan Leave a Comment

Our garden backs onto some woods, so the paths are often strewn with fir cones. I found some inspiration on Pinterest of how I could use them… and promptly started collecting a few every time I took the dog for a walk! Here’s what you need: Fir cones (I collected them then left them in…

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Filed Under: Archive Old Posts, Uncategorized Tagged With: Christmas, craft, fir cones, glitter, natural resources

Christmas Dinner highlights

December 26, 2013 by Susan Leave a Comment

Christmas Dinner in the Barrie household is a much discussed affair. We try and plan our dinner menu a couple of weeks in advance, after we have poured over various websites, recipe books and cookery programmes. But before we get to our Christmas dinner feast – here’s a link courtesy of Me and My Shadow to show…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2013, Christmas, food

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Primary Sidebar

I’m Susan and welcome to A Highland Blend – a website primarily promoting the people, products and places of Caithness. I offer digital media and VA support services for businesses in the north Highlands of Scotland and beyond. To find out more, please check out my About Me or Available Services pages.

I also love to help locals and tourists alike discover the best of Caithness and the rest of the Scottish Highlands, so you’ll also find blog posts that will help plan your itinerary, whether it’s places to visit, or places to eat and drink.

If you’d like to get in touch, please contact me by email or by any of the social media links below.

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RECENT POSTS

A Highland Blend’s reflection on 2020 – a year like no other

2020… What a year. How is it possible for a period of time to have gone so slowly, and yet so fast? At the start of the year we were all hearing about a mysterious virus circulating in China, without giving too much thought for the consequences here in the UK. Who could have anticipated…

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Why I’ve launched A Highland Blend to work with Caithness businesses

In 2017 I flitted north from Inverness to Wick in Caithness, and in 2018 I rebranded my blog to A Highland Blend. Since living in Caithness, I’ve got to know the locals and their businesses, got involved with the local community, and started to explore this stunning region, which sits right on the NC500. I’ve…

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Reframing thought processes: a business mindset | Reflections on risk and investment

As I scanned the subject header line ‘Your application for reduction in hours‘, my heart skipped a beat as I opened the email. Here’s some context: Over the summer, after discussing the various pros and cons with Mr B of such a risk, I had requested to reduce my hours in my ‘day job’ in…

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Taste North 2020 goes digital

TASTE NORTH 2020

During these strange times, organisations are having to adapt to some challenging circumstances, and Taste North is no different. This year’s Taste North 2020 festival is fully online, so take a look below at what’s on offer! (Read my Taste North 2018 report here)

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