Nice news: A roundup of the week's good news from around Scotland

Limited edition Bank of Scotland £5 note designed by a Dundee schoolgirl sold for £18,600 at auction

A limited edition Bank of Scotland £5 note designed by a Dundee schoolgirl sold for £18,600 at auction.

The note, featuring a picture of Pudsey Bear raising a Saltire flag, was one of the first polymer notes issued on 17 July 2015.

The Pudsey design was created by Kayla Robson, 12, who won a Bank of Scotland competition in partnership with the BBC's Children in Need charity.

It had been expected to fetch between £1,000 and £1,200.

An anonymous collector bid £15,500 when the note went under the hammer at the Spink's World Banknotes auction in London on Tuesday.

But the actual amount paid rose to £18,600 including buyer's premiums.

Scottish Conservatives' Ruth Davidson: 'Put me on the BBC's Strictly, please'

Scotland's Conservative leader Ruth Davidson confessed that she would love to be a contestant on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

In a Sky News interview she urged the broadcaster to "sign me up for next year - I want a bit of that action".

The prime-time weekend show is currently featuring former Labour MP Ed Balls.

Former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls successfully completed his first week of competition with dance partner Katya Jones

Ms Davidson spoke about her dancing ambitions ahead of her keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference.

She said she was jealous of Mr Balls' participation in the competition which is now in its twelfth year.

She added: "I have to say I have been totally team Balls on Strictly Come Balls... Strictly Come Dancing.

"I think he's doing a tremendous job and I'm just jealous.

"So if anybody from the BBC is watching, sign me up for next year, because he's making it look brilliant. I want a bit of that action."

Mr Balls isn't the first politician to participate in the show - he follows Edwina Curry, who was a health minister in the 1980s; former Tory minister Ann Widdecome and Liberal Democrat Vince Cable.

Edwina Curry, a health minister in the 1980s, took part in the 2011 contest partnering with Vincent Simone

Former Tory minister Ann Widdecome featured in the 2010 series, dancing with partner Anton du Beke

'Extinct' elms found in Queen's garden in Edinburgh

Trees believed to have been extinct in Britain have been discovered at the Queen's official residence in Scotland.

The two 100ft Wentworth elms have been identified in the Queen's garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

Despite being among the most photographed trees in the garden, the breed was only identified during a recent tree survey.

Tree experts are now looking into ways of propagating the rare specimens, Ulmus Wentworthii Pendula.

Frae Wisconsin tae Wigtown: How an American won a Scots poetry prize

American Renita Boyle, who was born and raised in Wisconsin, won a Scottish poetry prize.

She picked up a storytelling bug from her great-grandfather, a lumberjack, who used to tell her tales he had once recounted around the campfire.

Then personal loss saw her turn to poetry: "I think, like a lot of people who write poetry or any kind of writing at all, they do it because they can't not - it is just something that is in you to do," she said.

"My father died when I was 13 years old and the first thing I did was go up to my bedroom and I wrote a poem. It is quite a therapeutic thing for me to do."

She met her future husband in Glasgow more than 30 years ago. She was welcomed into that family before having family of her own and then moving to Wigtown a decade ago.

An artwork by Lisa Hooper helped to inspire the award winning poem

Storytelling has always been in her blood but now, over the years, the words and ways of Scotland have started to seep in.

Her winning poem, Sloe Jen, was inspired by a piece by artist Lisa Hooper but also a motherly fear of watching her teenage son leave the nest.

Judges praised the "lovely, consistent" use of the Scots language and described it as a "sad and beautiful work".

Young farmers use bales of hay to make art

Young farmers from around Scotland used bales of hay to make art.

You can see more of their creations here.

Recognise him? Biggar YFC recreated Bertie Basset from hay bales

One group recreated characters from the film Minions

Lottery funds awarded to Skye and Tomintoul landscape projects

The exhibits in Skye's ecomuseum are features of the landscape

A museum on Skye that has no walls or roof and a landscape project in Moray have secured Lottery funding.

Staffin Community Trust has been awarded a grant of £522,100 for its ecomuseum, which is the first of its kind in Scotland.

The museum's exhibits are features of the landscape at Staffin, on Skye, such as archaeological sites and geology.

Tomintoul and Glenlivet Landscape Partnership has won a £2.24m grant for social and environmental projects.

These include turning Tomintoul Museum into a discovery centre and tourist hub and restoring woodland along sections of the River Avon.

Tomintoul and Glenlivet Landscape Partnership has secured major funding

What big ears you have: Highland park's wolf pups are growing up

New images released showed how much six wolf pups born at the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig, near Aviemore, have grown.

The pups were born on 3 June and are being raised by their parents Ruby and Jax.

It is the latest litter of European wolves, a subspecies of the grey wolf, to be raised at the park.

Previously, pups were born there in 2013 and Ruby was born at the site in 2012.

The pups have grown up since photographs of the wolves were released about three months ago

A game of golf 'keeps the doctor away'

A regular game of golf is likely to increase life expectancy and lead to better physical health, according to University of Edinburgh researchers.

The review of 5,000 studies on golf and wellbeing found physical benefits increased with the player's age.

The study is part of the Gold and Health Project, which is led by the World Golf Foundation.

The project plans to look at gaps in the research such as golf's links to mental health and muscle strengthening.

The study suggested playing golf could help players meet and exceed minimum government recommendations for moderate to vigorous physical activity.

It claimed that golfers walking 18 holes could cover four to eight miles, while those using an electric golf cart typically chalked up four miles.

Players burned a minimum of 500 calories over 18 holes, it said.

For more information on getting into golf, take a look at the Get Inspired activity guide on the sport.