Scotland's Royal Saint

                     

Old Maps

I love old maps.  

Especially those covering places I have lived in.  This map appears to date to 1896, though this cannot be guaranteed.  The railways were added in 1902.  I love it because at the top is the area in which I spent my first two years of life, and returned to for school and church.  As my late brother said, 'This is our home.'  He said that even though he had not lived there since 1953, but home area it was and remains.      

Granton Road was our area.  This is because dad moved there in 1911 and was based in the middle of the wee dot we see to the right of the road, just north of Granton Road Station.  That was our tenament, and it remains in use today, but without us.   That makes me wonder about the people who have lived there both before and after us.  What happened to them?  Do the present occupiers see the area as we saw it?  

Certainly things have changed a lot.  One half of the harbour has been filled in and new blocks of flats tower over the other half.  The railways we all knew have gone, including the high embankment that once took goods into town.  That embankment blocked the view of the local houses for well over a hundred years, so much light can now fill those dwellings.   

While we occupied the tenaments to the right we see dotted around the big houses, now either divided into flats, or selling for over a million at a time.  Our small two room tenament sold recently for just over £100,000.  Before I was born my dad laughed at a neighbour who paid £100 for his!  

The area marked as 'Trinity,' became a large playing field.  Our school was created in 1932 to replace the one dad went to down near the harbour.  That building still stands with the doors marked 'Boys,' and 'Girls.'  What it is used for now is unknown.  

The playing field was filled with Royal Navy equipment, in a variety of quickly erected huts, during the war.  With the housing shortage afterwards these were commandered by many seeking a new home.  Today it is a sports field of various sorts.  

The chip shop is now a Chinese, or is it Indian, the phone box has gone, the Co-op shop might be still there but is modernised, and the police box (think 'Tardis') remains but for what use?  The shops have been amalgamated into one large succesful shop.  

Time passes, memories remain.  An old map can waste hours of work time if you manage it properly. 

I'm glad I found this one.  

 

Tiger

                                                                      Big Cats India

The other day there was one of those stories about daft people.  This one may of course have been mentally ill, and it sounds likely, as he climbed over two fences, and entered the cage in a zoo where a pair of tigers lived.  

Now we all make mistakes, we all go into places by error rather than design, but deliberately entering the cage of a man eating beast is not a mistake we make easily.  So this chap enetered the cage and soon afterwards was dying, no doubt with quite a bit of pain on offer.  The zoo staff stepped in but could not save him and not surpisingly he died there.  

The tiger of course was merely protecting himself and his mate, he saw a danger approaching and defended himself, who can refuse him that right?

Now I used to like going round zoos, the animals are great, many would be dead in the wild today, and almost all appear happy.  Those who say they ought to be released usuqally can afford to trek across the world to spot such animals in the wild, I cannot.  Zoos do a lot of great work protecting and helping animals and we must support them.  These tigers may well have been seen as pests in India and shot when near villages or townships.  It is safer in the UK for them.  

How though do we stop people getting into cages?  The truth is we cannot.  Fances and gates do not stop the determined or the mentally ill, they will get through to their cost.  Nothing can stop them.

Some wanted the animal killed for this attack.  Why remove an animal for being itself?  No reason for that.  The tiger is not a wild dog which attacks people while owned by a non caring owner, the dog, and preferably the owner, ought to be put down.  It has become wild, so has the owner.  The tiger must however, remain.

 

Harvest

It was Harvest Festival service on Sunday, though to be honest I cared little for it.  The common cold that has held me prisoner for three weeks did not ease up much for the day.  While most symptoms had gone the cough and tiredness remained.  I attempted five minutes snooze before the service but was woken by people pretending to be friends.  This did not ease my mood.

I coughed and spluttered, along with one other sufferer who also had to be there, trying not to fall asleep of spread germs everywhere.  In this I failed.  The thing is I was doing the prayers so could not avoid being there.  Normally I would have missed out but I had prepared and having missed several meetings already it was wise to attend.  I was wrong.

So, eventually I got the chance to pray.  I croaked my way through it, noticing the expressions on the faces as I did so, and walked limpingly back to my seat watched by dead eyes.  I did not stay for the anniversary dinner that followed, I went home to bed for the rest of the day.

Here we are three weeks since this bug began and I am still coughing loud enough to wake the folks downstairs.  Getting to sleep leads to racking coughs, they hear each one.  Hopefully it will subside now, there is not much strength left inside me after this.  

Of course nothing has been done, lots to do and with the weather getting chilly I looked at the bpiler and found a wee leak at the pressure gauge knob.  Oh goody!  Of course the knob will not turn, even after a can of UB40 has been blown onto it.  I may require a man in to fix it before I use it again.  Exploding boilers worry me.

Then there is all the other work that has been left lying, someone has to do it, and I suppose it is good for me to exercise by working.  It never done me much good when working mind.  

Meanwhile, all around the world is in a mess, tyrants and their lackeys destroy and steal.  Never mind, remember psalm 37, 'Fret not because of the wicked.'  You see, Jesus remains Lord of all.

 

Spem in Alium, Culture.

 

Poverty And the Rich

 

Man Cold