Hey Ewe!

I posted a picture a wee while back of tartan coloured sheep.  The other day I came across this picture also.  These sheep belong to a man who's name has run from my head (was it Adams?) at Boghall Farm near Bathgate.  Only Scots would make a Hall in a bog you understand.  Anyway this chap has for some years past dyed his sheep various colours often regarding events at the time. Recently they were dyed purple to support the Erskine charity appeal.  Erskine look after wounded soldiers and purple is their colour.  Quite what was happening when he multi coloured his sheep here I know not.  They can indeed be seen as you pass along the motorway from Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city to Glasgow, where we keep the lower orders.  I just remember that I saw them a few years ago as we passed, i canny mind what colour they were that day however.  
Many farmers now do this to their sheep, this can be done for practical purposes in counting them, twenty red, twenty blue etc, and occasionally such are used in adverts and farmers are always keen on money making schemes.  Some think this harms the flock but it seems to be quite safe.  Poisoned sheep do not retail very well at market anyway.  Sheep can in fact cope with certain poisons very well, although copper does them a lot of harm as arsenic does us.

These boys were participating in an advert regarding Ireland in some form or other.  Some folks rear sheep they have to sit outside chewing the cud with of course, but I myself would never mention this in polite company.

Guardian

Officers of the 42nd Highland Regiment, The Black Watch, photographed by Roger Fenton in the Crimea during the war with Russia in 1854.  Today we read of Simferopol airport receiving several Russian cargo aircraft carrying hundreds of troops.  Clearly Putin is acting the strong man once again, the Russian Fleet is based in the Crimea and he does not wish to lose that port, and in spite of warnings from the US and Europe he clearly intends to support his people there in the eastern half of the Ukraine.    
How easily wars begin.
Barbara Tuchman, that great American Historian wrote 'The March of Folly,' in which she shows how wars begin through peoples misunderstanding of one another and the motives behind each action. Ukraine is divided into two halves, the majority wishing to be part of Europe, the Eastern half predominately Russians descended of those moved there by Stalin wish to associate themselves with Moscow.  For centuries Ukraine was seen as part of the Russian sphere, something many Ukrainians rejected and still reject.  Indeed during the war many wished to support Hitler if it got rid of Stalin! Hitler merely had them shot.  Today a large number wish to join with Russia and the propaganda tells them their opponents are 'fascists,' and a danger.  In fact they are probably just well educated and desire contact with the EU rather than domination by Putin. I tend to side with them, Mr Putin clearly does not.
Will arms be raised in the west?  It appears nothing has been said anywhere, and careful words only will be made public.  A delicate stage has been reached, if Putin sends troops to retake Kiev rather than protect his port this could be dangerous.  

Sir James Young Simpson

Sir James Young Simpson

James Simpson, one of many great and internationally famous Scotsmen, was born into the usual 19th century small Scottish family, he was one of seven children!  His father had moved from a bakers job into accounting for the local bank, which with so many choldren was a good place to be.  James emerged into the small town of Bathgate in what is now West Lothian.  The town had been around since the time of King Malcolm IV (that's the 1100's to you) but while it had an occasional  moment of fame nothing much could be said of it in 1811 when James appeared.  It did have a distillery (that produced 85,000 gallons a year by centuries end) and built a decent large academy, so someone had money as well as the Scottish emphasis on education.  Our James however had been so bright that he had long since left the town and entered Edinburgh University at 14 years of age (the same age at which I departed school!).  Our hero began to practice medicine at 20 years of age and was so bright that he became professor of midwifery at 28!  Here he introduced many innovations, including using midwifes in hospitals, and reorganisation of hospital procedures but became much more famous for his discovery of Chloroform as an anesthetic.

Sir Humphrey Davey, he of the miners lamp, had begun to use Nitrous Oxide in 1799 but the use did cause problems for patients lungs.  Always willing to experiment at a time of much needed innovation, James and his pal doctors experimented on themselves with a variety of substances to aid patients.  In 1847 they found Chloroform was a knock out.  With Doctors Duncan and Keith and some say with their wives also,  he experimented in the front room of his home at Queen Street, Edinburgh, the home of many famous men (ahem).  Each held a cloth soaked in the stuff over their mouths.  When they awoke, the next morning, lying on the floor , they realised they had something here!  It was however, as always, opposed by many and not until Queen Victoria used such while giving birth to Prince Leopold that it became accepted.  Many women breathed a sigh of relief!     

Somewhere along the line James added 'Young' to his name.  Possibly this referred to his age while professor, maybe it was a cause for humour among his colleagues, no reason is given.  His humour was well known, he once sat a freed slave beside a slave owner at one of his dinners, and possibly he took the name 'Young' as a laugh! In 1866 his work and fame war rewarded by the nation, he became 1st Baronet of Strathavon, possibly after the location of his country house, and we all need one of those!  The house I mean, not the Baronetcy.  

Simpson died aged 58 in 1870, and while his worldwide fame was such an offer of burial in Westminster Abbey was made he like all good Scots, was laid to rest in Warriston Cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital!  A memorial bust was placed in the Abbey while on the day of his funeral a holiday was declared. 100,000 people lined the streets!  What a man!

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