Gardens in the Morning

Early this morning I took myself over to the gardens before the mums arrived with their kids.  It was quiet, the top gate was blocked off so almost no-one was there, jolly good I say.  

 
The idea was twofold, to loosen my aches from yesterday and to play with the manual settings on the camera. The bones creak still and the camera produced a great many failed shots!  At least one creature stirred in the gardens this white cat that yelled along after me, I am not sure whether it was lost or hungry, I suspect both.

The cat and I wandered slowly among the trees, he meowing not me, until we separated near the grass part.  Being not long after nine I expected more people but in times past I have arrived early and in the quiet found many birds and creatures going about their business, maybe the early morning heat was putting wildlife off.

   
The barking high above me announced this wee man who was upset about something.  I had noticed one other squirrel running about and maybe this is he possibly upset because all others have gone to ground.  His bark, there is no other word for the noise emanating from him, his bark could be heard everywhere, very loud for such a wee creature.  I did speak to him but he just turned his back on me.

   
Then the disappointed seagulls hovered around.  Disappointed because there was little in the way of foodstuffs to fight over, normally early on there is something left lying about.  How do birds cope with the heat, let alone other weather situations?  It seems to me they appear at the hanging feeders less in high temperatures possibly because other food is more readily available, possibly it is just too hot?  I know not why?  Gulls fly in to feed on farmland and return in the evening to the estuary to sleep on the sea, rather them than me.  There were only a handful of them around today also.

I almost got this purple thing right.  Few flowers around except those planted by the garden staff, mostly green stuff at the moment, except for the grass which is like hay.

This wreath lay at the memorial today but I am unsure who it represents.  At first I thought it was referring to the Korean War, also called the Forgotten War as few wanted to know about it at the time and few know about it know.  Between 1950 and 1953 the Korean peninsula was the scene of the first UN operation, many nations participated but the UK sent a relatively small number of troops (led by Australians) so soon after the second world war, several thousand died mind.  On the other hand it reads '16 Med' which could refer to the RAMC in which '16 Med' serve today with the 16th Airborne Division.  I do with people would make things clear for my little mind.

 
What is this all about?  This took several attempts with manual setting before I got one that I could actually see that is what this is about!  What is it?  I have no idea...

Remembrance Sunday Centenary

The Great War began on August 4th 1914, the armistice coming four long years later on November 11th 1918.  To remember the fallen of this and other conflicts we met before the war memorial this afternoon.  A very large crowd attended, possibly slightly larger than last years, and correct observation was performed.  The procedure followed routine, a loud voice, hidden by the crowds, called the uniformed ones to attention. Standards were raised, the 'last post' blown then a 'stand at ease' ordered.  The vicar said a few prayers, a few words were said, then wreaths were laid, first by the dignitaries then by others in order.  All in all the usual short gathering.  However I was feeling a bit let down as I realised that this type of meeting misses one thing only - the names of the fallen! Possibly because I have lived with them for a while I find a gap, an emptiness where each individual ought to be.  No need for all names just one or two and a word on their deeds to enlighten the people. This brings the individual home to us not just a name.

    

The gathering of men in uniform used to be common when I were a lad today it is something unusual. Unless you live in a 'Barrack' town you rarely see uniformed men.  National service and of course war itself meant such sights were part of daily life not any more.  Terrorist threats have meant some units are not allowed to wear their uniform in the the streets in some areas!  I am quite surprised some of the uniformed organisations still manage to enroll so many as the costs must be high however the Air Training Corps members seen here have always been popular, possibly because they might get into an airplane occasionally.  

The police (well PCSO's) were in attendance to control the traffic for the march past, much smaller crowd than last year when several full police officers were in control.  However the local football team were playing a major cup tie at the same time, and losing 0-3 last time I heard, so that is where the constabulary would have operated.  Rarely do remembrance crowds get out of hand.  

From the rear you do not get much of a view of the dignitaries but at least the sound system is good. However I wonder about the names on the memorial and their connection to the people in the gardens.  Many will be there because their child is in the scouts/guides or whatever, others because a relative, whom they may have just discovered is named thereon.  I just wish I could have spoken to some but I recognised only two people in the throng.  

So we have remembered, poppies have been worn, memorials attended, research begun, bands have played, men have marched, and life will return to normal now.  For those in 1926 who attended the unveiling of the memorial the thoughts may have been different.  The names were of sons, husbands, friends, and family.  They left a gap, sometimes a huge gap that was never to be filled again.  Many women struggled to raise the family afterwards, many a heart mourned until their dying day, many a child had their life dented by loss, but the individual just had to 'get on with it,' there was no other choice.  The s'stiff upper lip' and many others being in similar troubles gave no opening for self pity or depression, life had to go on.  

At least here was a place to remember, many knew only the name of the memorial somewhere in France or Belgium where their loved one was commemorated, usually they could not afford to visit. At least if he lay in a cemetery the relative  felt he was taken care off but just a name among the thousands on a memorial is so cold and somewhat inhuman, a soldiers relatives require more.  Some on the memorial lie far off in Gallipoli or Jerusalem, during the second war some fell further away in Asia, others fell from the skies lost for ever.  

For us today who did not know them personally we can move on easily, only the old remember them, they cannot forget. However they too have had their life, they too have seen younger folks suffer in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone the many 'small' and 'forgotten' wars since 1945. Do you realise that so many people today do not know what the 'Cold Was' was like?  To them it is a History lesson, to us it was always in the background.  Life moves on indeed!

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Interesting Scotia Happenings

gCaptain

'Gardyloo,' as you well know, was the exclamation shouted from old Edinburgh tenements when someone wished to empty their 'pisspot' into the gutter that ran down the middle of the narrow close.  Such a load offered from several floors above, some buildings reaching ten stories, was not the most pleasant part of Edinburgh past.  Walking through it on the way ho,e from the tavern would not have been a barrel of laughs either I suspect.  Hygiene was not much improved anywhere in what is laughingly referred to as the 'United Kingdom' until the middle of the nineteenth century.  Then Ministers of Health were to be found in most cities and sewerage, slum clearance, clean water and soap brought much needed improvements.  Edinburgh, not surprisingly, produced some of the best and most inventive doctors in the world!  They had a lot to go on, as it were.  

During the twentieth century, which some of you may be old enough to remember, Scotland's capital still had problems with sewage.  By this time pipes ran way out into the Firth of Forth depositing unwanted material into the waters where it would be passed on into the north Sea. This is the same same North Sea where our Haddock came from and they kindly recycled the stuff back to us through the many 'chippies.'  I recall the early 70's when Edinburgh streets were in upheaval as a new sewage works arrived down Portobello way at Seafield.  Normally this seaside 'resort,' I use that word sparingly, contained the youthful Hibernian players and their fans idling the day's away while bigger clubs participated in European competition, however during this decade the contents of the sewage pipes had failed to reach the Haddock in the North Sea and instead arrived unwelcome on Porty beach.  Some folks still swam!  Leith people eh?  The council swiftly moved into action, once a backhander had arrived, allegedly, thousands of tons of new, clean sand was deposited, the new sewage works opened  and people removed the clothes pegs from their noses.

This was not without mishap of course.   While working in the infirmary one chap (English of course) arrived in the ward, both hands tied to a rack keeping his arms in the air.  Behind him came a nurse carrying a small bowl containing several of his fingers, or bits of his fingers.  He then had Professor James sew them back on again.  I spent the next two weeks looking after him, doing all those things you wish you could do yourself, until he was considered fit enough to return home.  I wonder how his hands are now?   Possibly the shaving cuts have healed also?  He was a warning that when fixing a large industrial fan, make sure it will not swing round swiftly when your hands are inside!

The fitters work at the Seafield plant may have been good, at least up till someone switched the fan on, but Edinburgh still had an excess of waste to deal with, this is where the 'Bovril Boats' come in!  'Bovril' itself as you know was an invention of an Edinburgh Butcher, John Lawson Johnson.  He later moved to Canada (because Edinburgh was too warm?) where his 'beef glaze' was developed into 'Bovril' as we know it today.  This he sold to Napoleon's army and made his name and his money!  However the substance also gave its name to the 'sludge boats.'  To remove the contents of the sewers boats collected from sewage farms as much as they could contain and sailed into recognised areas at sea and dumped the lot for the tides to disperse. From 1978, while I existed on a pittance in a hole in a wall in Notting Hill the M.V. Gardyloo operating from Leith Docks, took up to half a million metric  tonnes of 'sludge' from the people of Edinburgh, and headed of to St Abbs Head or the 'Bell Rock' to release its contents there.  For twenty years this interesting operation continued.  However while the dumping ground was carefully chosen, and the ship 'ponged' a wee bit the interesting thing was the passengers!  At no charge twelve passengers were entertained on the short trip and were given breakfast, coffee and biscuits, lunch and even their tea while they inspect the sea life on the islands in the Forth, especially the Bass Rock I suspect.  In between using binoculars on nesting seabirds or examining the wheelhouse the ship would dump its load on unsuspecting Cod.  Their opinion has not been recorded.  A very good day out this seems to me and I wish I had known of its existence at the time.  I would have been aboard at a shot!  Sadly EU regulations forbade such dumping in 1998 and these boats curtailed their employment and were passed on to others for less exciting work. The 'Gardyloo' now transports 'fresh water' for Azerbaijan!  The Seafield Water Treatment Works, a nice way to say 'sewage,' continues the work, although much attention is required concerning the 'odour' that local citizens may notice from time to time.  Some £50 million may have to be spent to deal with that.  The boat was cheaper!

BBC

From 1950 until 1953 the United Nations fought its first war, this took place in Korea.  The 'Cold War' had begun and used third world countries as battlefields.  Our fifty years of peace were fifty years of war for Africa, South East Asia and Central and South America, among others.  Fifty to a hundred million died, still, we were doing OK so that's alright then.  The Japanese had dominated Korea for around a hundred years and when removed in 1945 a political decision meant the nation was divided between the Soviets to the north and the USA to the south.  The two nations began to develop along different lines and in June 1950 the Communist North invaded the South making the UN rush into action - eventually.  An army comprising twenty nations, with almost 90% being American, arrived under 'Mad Boy' MacArthur.  The United Kingdom, still devastated after the defeat of Hitler, sent a large number of troops to this war, much against public opinion!  Two major wars in fifty years, a depression and now with rationing still ongoing few cared about a nation they had never heard off.   However a force built from the Commonwealth was sent.  The British Commonwealth Forces Korea (BCFK) comprised Australian, New Zealand, Indian, Canadian and British  forces and numbered 100,000 men and this was always led by an Australian. For the most part however these men have been forgotten!  The British units involved are named here.  

Allowing for the lack of news at the time, TV was in its beginning after the war and the Radio and newspapers appeared to play down the war itself.  Indeed one returning soldier stepped of a train in Edinburgh's Waverly Station where a friend greeted him.  When asked where he had been he replied "Korea," and his friend had no idea what he was talking about!  The war was so badly reported because no-one wished to know.  The Britain of the early fifties was rebuilding after the war, houses were in desperately short supply, wages were low, the ravages of war and the building of families and a new life took precedence.  The men who served, and suffered greatly, were forgotten.  As indeed were those in Britain's other small wars, the 'End of Empire' wars.  

Now however this new enlarged memorial has been opened to remember those Scots who served before they all pass away.  Situated in  West Lothian, of a Korean design, surrounded by Scots and Korean trees to represent the dead, the hills also suggest Korea to those who were there.  Many died there, many were traumatised, as any 19 year old on National Service would be!  Forgotten on their return, ignored at the time, these men endured for their country as did those from the other conflicts since that time.  It is good that something is done to remember their actions. 

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