March of the Markets

Yet another supermarket for Inverness. And most importantly this one is NOT a Tesco who have quite a hold over this small town. This is going to be a new Asda just off the Southern not-quite-a-ring-road at Slackbuie. Even as recently as 1995 when I came to Inverness the low hills between here and Strathnairn were mostly just that - green hills. And the southern ring-road was like a boundary. The amount of residential building since has been enormous. I took a devious route to get petrol and was a bit surprised at all the developments which are now coalescing into one another. Just by the Asda site a huge placard is announcing new homes at a nearby development called "Greenfields" - an odd name to choose as once the houses are built it won't be a very accurate description.
And after joining the Inverarnie road and heading back down I came across a crowd of about 50 to 100 schoolchildren all over the road (Inverness Royal Academy is just a few hundred yards further on). Inching past it turned out they were laying bouquets at a spot where the body of a missing schoolboy was found at the weekend. Which possibly accounts for the helicopter I saw hovering over the area early one morning. Not wanting to be lynched I decided it was best not to take a shot. Not sure it (bouquet-laying) is a very healthy response but we see these scenes on TV so much it perhaps seems normal.