Dull Tuesday

The bright sun that enlivened the world has faded into gray, with added rain.  Quite how we survive in these appaling conditions I fail to understand.  People blessed with constant hot weather sometimes cry out for rain, pffft!  There is no pleasing some people!   This tree however appears pleased to have been here for some time, it reminds me of an Olive tree, surely it can't be, not here?  Judging by the trunks girth it has put on the weight since it first appeared, but how long ago I wonder?  Could it have grown from seeds left by the Roman chappies all those years ago?  Well no, there is a line of them carefully planted.  Are they really Olives or have I drunk too much coffee?

A combination of the lurgi and gray skies forced me to spend the day as a slob, much against my will!  The sleeps I had were purely for medicinal reasons and nothing else.  I fed my aches, looked for my brain and failed to find it, and read blogs that appeal.  I think they will appeal to your twisted intellects also.  Especially Robert's.  This man attempts to write short stories of a mere hundred or so words, and his mind 'meanders' into strange places he says, I think he is right in saying this.  It is worth browsing his blog for a moment.  I am convinced most people would wish to know more.  'Mulled Vine.'

The sight of large fat men and women showing how many pizzas they have stuffed into themselves through the winter has annoyed many of us.  I am quite happy to see thin female flesh in the park but recent days have found the cry "Cap'n Ahab! Thar she blows!" escape my lips just once too often.  Even Edinburgh with the perpetual Haar over the Forth and the gray skies desperate to blight the city has seen blue skies and sunshine I have heard.  This has brought out the chip supper and pizza lovers allowing the famous author Mike Smith to release his feelings on the subject.  This will win him much support, world wide I suspect.  Well not from fat folks.  I declare my interest in this in that I always keep my shirt on!  Read and enjoy 'Auld Reekie Rants.'

If however you wish to see the world in a new way you require a picture blog, of which there are billions!  There is one that gives a fresh eye on London that is always worth a look.  It's called 'Fresh Eye on London.'  Take a gander wontcha!

If however you are merely a man of culture and sophistication then I have discovered a site you dare not miss!  'Railscot.'  Men of culture and sophistication will love it!  

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Old Inn

I passed this intriguing building this morning but can discover little about its history.  It appears to have begun in the late 1600's and was converted to a pub in the early Victorian era, but exact dates are not clear.  I wonder if it began as an Inn and became a pub?  Or was it a house thus converted.  It was well situated for its purpose, lying on the North Road a short walk out of town travellers would be plentiful.  Just try to imagine a dusty well used lane, an occasional horse rider, a flock of sheep or cows heading to market, maybe even some kind of cart for the wealthy, people walking on their journey.  Difficult with such a vast array of bus, lorry and car traffic thundering past, small shopkeepers, Indian and Pizza takeaways and a mixed population today, very different from those long gone days of dusty roads.  An interesting frontage which surely must have been a house belonging to some well of bloke of his day.  It appears to be a well run public house today, whatever the history.  I couldn't afford to go in.....

A special shot for the rail commuters amongst us.  This is what that tin of sardines you endure morning and evening looks like after nine o' clock.  Those green things are called seats, you sit on them, although you may never actually get close enough to do even that I suspect.

  
And yes, as you have asked,  I did get a picture of this beast, a Class 47 as you will know, standing at the station awaiting developments.  Not sure what it is used for although there is often one parked up.  Overnight transport I guess for the E,S & W  goods stuff.  Innit luverly?


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Early Morning

At seven this morning I found myself down by the old mill at Bocking. Today this once busy mill, look at the size of it, has been converted into delightful housing with a marvellous outlook, bar the busy road in front!  There is a bridge over the water at this point and it bares the old Bocking motif which includes  a dolphin.  These beasts are also found wrapped around the light thereupon.  Being so far inland these appear somewhat out of place, dolphins being scarce in this river.  However we must go back into the mists of time here and discus ancient church power.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is based in Canterbury, which is just as well after being called that.  Now from 1381 until 1396 William Courtney was that Archbishop.  The Courtneys were also the 'Earls of Devon' and adopted the dolphin, the symbol of Byzantium, as you know, to keep a connection with that city as one of them had been Emperor there no less!  Which one?  No idea, Google it.  The 'Priory of the Holy Saviour' at Canterbury was given authority over the church at Bocking by Aetheric Worthfulman and his wife Leofwin as far back as 1006.  Reasons are not stated.  In Church of England circles this is known as a 'peculiar,' no jokes please.  This means the church at Bocking is administered by the Archbishop of Canterbury rather than the local Bishop.  All very uninteresting to me but that is how it is and has been for over a thousand years.  The Fleur-de-lis was added later, the Courtauld's who we met before were responsible for this, and a town noted for weaving and spinning must have a 'Woolsack' also on the motif.

From this angle I am afraid the dolphin, which appears more like a fish usually, now looks more like a snake!  Still few notice as they hurtle past in their tin boxes.  The beasts crop up here and there around this part of town.

The Essex motif also on the bridge is shown here, three Seaxes on a red background.  This was the symbol of the old East Saxons who once reigned here.  The 'Seax' was a short sword much used by Saxons, and possibly the name derived from 'Saxon,' or maybe it was the other way around.  I never asked...

ps.  I have put the word verification back on for a bit, too much Mr anon again.

The UK this Saturday Night

Matt

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Closed Friday

Closed Friday as nobody ever reads on a Friday.

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The Days of Long Ago/

In the days of long ago my sister got married, I know this because I was there and the poor husband has been whining about it ever since.  We took the novel step of recording the wedding ceremony, however you cannot hear his voice saying "I do," and he has attempted on many occasions since to claim the marriage was illegal.  The back of her hand has ensured him that it was legal. They moved out of Edinburgh to a small village where numbers of new houses were being built.  This was for the incoming employees 0f the new built 'British Leyland,' factory nearby.  Here they built Tractors and Lorries, and my brother-in-law had got himself a job as a storeman there.  I think it is important to mention that as the word 'village' brings with it a connotation of a close 'community,' that much misused word, small cosy houses, and a gentler pace of life I must point out that here in the depths of West LOthian life was not like that! That is because this was 'Glasgow overspill territory!'  Many came trundling from the west to work in the factory, where several thousand were employed at one time,  and the newly built houses, with all mod cons, and 'American styling,' or so they said, were within fifteen years or so mostly pulled down because of the cretins who inhabited them.  Decent enough houses in themselves but they were filled with people who ruined them.  Why is this?  Many house designs of the post was period were a result of too much Le Corbousier  (you spell it!) influence, sometimes well thought out, often hacked about to keep costs down, and rarely 'human enough' for people to live in.  Maybe it was the type of people who inhabited them, a subject for another post maybe.   My sister still happily lives there, having long ago moved from that particular part of the village, and has survived in spite of the occasional murder.  

When she moved in, that was in 1962/3 time, we noticed postcards for sale in the small shops that then stood in the main street.  All of them had been printed in the 1920's or 30's!   Naturally we laughed, bought them, sent them, and forgot them.  Had we kept them some postcard fanatic might have paid a lot of money for them.  But I doubt it!  I came across them again on a  site a while ago and sadly have lost the link.  It may be the town site itself, note the word town!  Maybe it is now.  This one shown features a Gala Day procession from 1913.  In those days it was common for towns and villages to have a Gala Day, and this practice still persists although in slightly more modern form.  In fact where I live we also have such an event, but usually I am clever enough to miss it!  In the Days of Long Ago parades through the streets were common.  Such days brought all the town groups out in their Sunday best to walk the length of the main street and have a picnic and games in the local park.  Miners with their banners, Church groups, Scouts and Guides, businesses and leisure organisations would happily parade in the sunshine   Fun for all the family, even drunk uncle Joe!  Apart from the Gala Day, usually called 'Miners Gala Days' in Scotland with regard to the one time shale and coal mines that once abounded, there are none who parade today bar the 'Loyal Orange Order,' and an occasional Irish opponent.  These are not fun days to look out for however.   Around this time of year many will participate, probably on the back of a truck, and the smaller 'communities' (that horrible word) will gather for a bit of a laugh for the kids sake.  Uncle Joe will be found in the 'Red Lion' however.......

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Anonymous Spam

Because by nature I am a sweet, kind, thoughtful sort of neanderthal I decided to lose the moderation and word verification bits.  Within 24 hours I was besieged by Spam!  The Moderation is now back on!  Mr 'Anonymous,' has so far offered me handbags, Jaques Vert, whatever that is and what looks like Russian porn.  Each day several attempts to spam old and new posts arrive.  To accompany this I note a rise in Spam on the e-mail also.  The Nigerian Prince must be in Jail at the moment as he has not been around for some time however several employment agencies wish to discuss executive jobs with me, some worth £30-50,000 at that.  Others offer me financial deals and several are keen to 'enlarge me,' for reasons I fail to understand.   It appears nothing can be done to stop the Spam industry, especially when daft folks actually buy from them!  I can appreciate people in the US buying cheap drugs form Mexico and Canada but are they genuine I wonder?  Are they safe?  The blue tablets might be genuine but you will only find out one way, and if not the real deal what will they do to you?  

In one sense I can understand legitimate companies offering their services this way, after all the leaflets that come through the door may annoy many folk but they do work!  That is why Royal Mail send three each week and wish to offer nine each week!  People buy from the leaflets, and Spam which appears genuine finds a buyer somewhere.  However much is junk, some dangerous, most porn.  I added the moderation at first because Chinese porn began to be a pest, the Chinese government soon after closed down thousands of such sites, but there are always others.  The Chinks did irritate by only offering their goods in Mandarin, which as you know appears only as little boxes for most of us.  Poor marketing their I think.    No doubt it will all fade away again, but until then the moderation remains,  and this also helps stop rude American males sending their greetings also.  That is useful innit?

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Spring Sunshine

I wandered about this morning in bright sunshine and chilly winds.  I came across this bee making the most of one of my favourite flowers.  I like the blue flowers that appear at this time, then disappear for the rest of the year.  Maybe there is a purpose in this?  In the early seventies I watched a Bumble Bee on my windowsill brush the pollen (?) into the sacks on his legs and wished I had a camera capable of taking a close up of him.  Years later I had such equipment but never came across a suitable target!  Today I almost got my wish, although he just would not turn around and face me, too engrossed in his work to notice.  I marvel that this little camera can capture this shot however, digital is so much easier than fiddling with extension tubes!

Not a great picture but every pathway is covered with these.  Difficult to get a proper shot because of the way they lie, but I enjoy the slight aroma that comes along with them.  It rarely puts a smile on those passing by mind you!   

I went out in the afternoon dressed as per normal and was shocked to discover the heat was terrific!  The sun was shining, the sky blue, but it was actually hot!  Shocked was I.  It was so warm I had to return home and remove three of my pullovers.  Jings, Spring has sprung at last!  

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Something Genuinely Funny!

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Bomber Dies?

Daily Telegraph

So, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is dead.  The man accused of the Lockerbie bombing passes away but the uneasy sense of injustice does not.  In spite of the decision of Scots Judges in the trial few believe this man committed this outrage.  Clearly, as we have stated before, a political stitch up has taken place to satisfy a sense of justice, and the result was that justice was not done!  Two points remain.  Evidence keeps 'leaking out' that Megrahi could not have been the bomber but few seek to investigate this.  What have the authorities to hide?  The other point is Captain Will Rogers action of downing Iran Air IR655, killing 290, including 66 children.  Ronald Reagan not only walked away from this event he awarded a campaign medal to Rogers.  How do the crew of his ship feel now I wonder?  Many Americans appear too keen to accept this man's guilt, yet many relatives have no belief in his being the bomber.  Too many questions still remain unanswered, I suspect it will be 50 years before answers appear.

The Heart Of Midlothian paraded the Scottish Cup before their millions of fans today.  Travelling through Scotland's historic capital the joyous throng cheered the magnificent men in maroon!  Oh how I wish I had been there with them (although they appear not to have missed me) and cried my eyes out with happiness.  Oh joy!  It is difficult to believe but there was a time I wondered if I would ever see Hearts win a trophy.  In 1962 I first stepped through the hallowed turnstile at Tynecastle Stadium and watched them defeat the Airdrionians by 6 goals to 1 and thought it would always be like this!  The sun shone, the sky was blue and the world seemed good.  That year we won the League Cup and it appeared to my mind that joy would always be mine!  The victories would keep coming and I would be there to see it!  However reality came into things.  After the fifties, when the Heart of Midlothian swept all aside, the sixties saw a change, a change for the worst.  After missing out on the League Championship in 1964/5 we entered upon a 'youth policy.'  This meant 'cheap!  (a lawyer was chairman!)  Then followed years of despair, as you will guess I was there, at almost every game!  Standing at Paisley, with the sleet hammering into our faces, we sang 'We shall overcome,' and lost three nil to a St Mirren side that got relegated.   I saw a great deal of Scotland at this time, and usually returned depressed! It wasn't meant to be like this!  It was 1998 before Stephan Adam (oh joy!) waltzed round the Rangers defence and smacked the winning goal home.  How we rejoiced!   Almost forty years we had waited for this, a phrase much repeated as we watched the open top bus slowly make its way through the crowds.  The pain had gone!  In 2006 we did it again!  And now we have won the Scottish Cup for the third time so few years!  (tears flow at this point) Who would have thought this would happen.  I give thanks to God he allowed me to support the Hearts, a proper football team, not one with scurrilous attitudes or reasons to be embarrassed. How grateful I am!

However we must take a moment to consider the Hibernian players and fans who suffered such a defeat yesterday.  After all the last time we met in the final, in 1896, we won that one also!  The wee team must despair at our constant success, and habit of trouncing them every time we play them, a habit that stems from the first encounter on Christmas Day 1875, we won that one nil.  Let us consider their pain, anguish, torment and despair thoughtfully.

  

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Oh Happy Saturday!

Heart of Midlothian 5 Hibernian 1.

Read all about it, the tears of joy are making it hard to type.

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Hmmmm.....

Around lunchtime I found the laptop to be very slow.  Not for the first time I must say.  This varmint does its best to annoy and irritate me.  That being so I just switched of and went out, grumbling, which is unusual for me.  However while the beast works at proper speed I note I have to sign in to things, and little oddities have arisen.  Hmmmm  have I been hacked?  They cannot steal money, there is only debts!  Or was it just one of those moments such machines develop I wonder?  Running the anti virus stuff made things no clearer.  Ho hum.....

On Saturday the biggest game EVER in the history of the Scottish Cup takes place at Hampden Park Glasgow, and I will not be there!  However all being well I can pick up the pictures on the web, and once again the Heart of Midlothian will defeat the wee team Hibernian to take the cup back home where it belongs.  Sadly (snigger) Hibs have not won the cup since 1902, the year Roosevelt (the first one)  became the first US president to drive around in a car (that's an automobile for our US friends).  It was also the year before man actually flew, before my father was born (1908), before two major wars and countless small ones.  The funny thing is these Hibs folks think tomorrow they will actually win this cup, and this from a side that has just avoided relegation! Ha Ha Ha!!!  

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Cats

Daily Mail

Cats are good!  People who do not like cats are saddo's I say.  The cat is a highly intelligent, self possessed, self confident creation that brings fun, humour and affection to millions.  The cat is practical also.  If you have mice scratching at the skirting boards a cat sniffing around will keep them from bothering your cheese.   Spiders and flying beasties will not only keep the cat entertained and fighting fit the beasties will not bother you for long and they will help keep the cat fed.  Admittedly they have a problem with budgies and other flying creatures, often leaving them at your feet as a present, but we all have awkward hobbies.  My brother brought home a small black and white kitten when I was about two years old, 'Patchy' survived for 13 years.  When a kitten she managed to get out the window and clamber up to the fourth floor of the building where she got stuck.  The young lad in the flat there stretched out and brought her back in, never again did she go out the front door.  If we were talking to someone on the stair landing she might have a peek over the edge but approaching footsteps chased her back inside.  Surprisingly she was an excellent watchdog.  Sitting on the couch in that half asleep mode her ears indicated every noise that came near the stair door.  The neighbours coming and going was indicated by the ears going up but the eyes remaining closed.  However strange footsteps opened the eyes and the ears were fully active, no stranger could approach secretly.  My brother left to join the RAF and at one point had been away for about two years or more, however the minute his foot entered the stair door downstairs the cat shot off to await his arrival.  She was first to greet him as he opened the door.  Her most enjoyed hobby was at night, when all was dark and quiet, she would chase a marble we had left lying around up and down the long lobby.  This was before the days of carpets and we could hear the 'bull' rolling and a screeching of claws on the lino and a bump as the cat raced into the door at the end.  This would go on until Dad got annoyed and threw something, like Mum, at the cat.


Our next cat was half factory and half Persian.   My brother in law was given this at work when the factory cat had kittens, somehow it ended up with us, possibly because the kids were too young at the time.  This one lasted about 14 years also.  When we noticed the cat constantly drinking my young nieces tea we had to dedicate that cup for the cat, and he then demanded his cup of tea whenever we had one.  If we did not make that half cup of milky tea the brute would glare until he got his way!  He always did irrespective of whoever the guests might be.  One regret I have had is the impossibility of keeping a cat in the places I have stayed.  There again I would be suffering malnutrition if one lived here, the brute would eat everything and leave me nothing! 

  

Now who can fail to be impressed by this wonderful steam engine?  What an impressive sight!  The short clip is found at the end of the 'Daily Mail' item.  The writing is pretty inept, but sadly that is all too common these days in the media.  Rushed stories to fill space, lack of understanding of the subject, and too much space to fill.  The engine however does look good.  How I would love to hang around one of those preserved lines.  Excellent pictures on the article.  How could any human being not enjoy this?   

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Dawn Sunshine

A night of peaceful slumber, broken only by the town drunk yelling at his personal windmills, saw me wake twenty minutes before six. The bright sunshine brought out the deep green in the grass all across the park.  Birds chirruped as they danced through the branches, nibbling the buds on the trees, high overhead an airliner sped east, leaving an ever so slight trail across the bright blue of the morning sky.  I decided to rise, threw aside the newspapers that I had kept to keep me warm all night, and left the damp park bench in search of breakfast.  

Having fought two crows and one raven over the leavings from a polystyrene food container I reached for the bike and decided this might be a good day for exercise.  Before leaving I checked the e-mail and slung a cup of cheap tea down my throat.  Actually slung was the correct word as I dropped it and spilt tea all over the laptop! "Dearie, dearie me," I said.  That explains the tea stains on the page you are reading.  

While the rising sun blinded those heading towards its rising this did not prevent the north wind from chilling my hands as I raced slowly along the old railway line.  I was so early only two dogs were walking their owners at that time.  This fine brown horse awaited me as I neared the village, although to be fair, he neither awaited me nor was interested in me, and he refused to show me his best side.  His mate, not shown, is not shown because he made a point of showing me his worst side, and emphasising this in what I would call a needless manner!                                                

 The farmhouse in the distance is typical of many houses around here.  From what I can gather some go back many, many years although inside they are sometimes much adapted as they are not always that large.  The mud caked floor tends to be expensively tiled, sometimes old flagstones still exist.  I notice that the rooms were usually small and wonder how many would live in such a place?  The occupants would most likely be the 'better sort,' so imagine what the farm labourers possessed!   Some look very good indeed but the half million required to buy one is quite steep, and these houses are usually right on the roadside, this was fine in 1750 with an occasional highwayman, herd of cattle or stage coach passing, not so fine with boy racer and his mates today I warrant.

Later I took my stiffening muscles to 'Chris & Jim's' to take a weight of my mind by having my hair cut.  I was surprised they remembered me as it has been so long since I entered the place.  By far the best barbers around, and it is no wonder they are popular!  It does however appear to me that  one of the few shops that open and survive are hairdressers or barbers!  There must be nearly two dozen around here, mostly aimed at women of course, but today men appear so fussy over their hair.  Footballers show their increased wages loosens their fashion sense by appearing on the field in wilder and wilder hairstyles.  The more absurd they appear the more likely some twat will copy them.  Of course young players not only copy fashion the hair identifies them on the field, and a good game will be noticed by those that matter.  An old trick which still works.  Proper men of course just let their hair grow Hippy style, although we did worry about 'split ends' a lot......

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Suspicious Bird

I have met a few suspicious birds in my time, for some reason few appear willing to trust my intentions.  The big Crows that live in the park trees are always moving off when passers-by approach, while the Goldfinches and Blue Tits rush off at high speed, especially when they catch me at the window spoiling their feed from the remaining nuts hanging there.  The Blackbird sitting here was watchful as I approached, no nearer than ten feet, but the wee camera did OK here.  You will of course know that Blackbirds are the first to break the quiet in the early morn.  Blackbirds, then Robins, then Thrushes I believe open up the dawn chorus because their eyes are larger and more susceptible to the first light, or so I hear.  It sounds true because when I was a postman I left here at four thirty in the morning, long before you lot left the dream factory, and as I turned the corner a blackbird would sing out at the far end of the street, then another at this end and before I had gone fifty yards they were all at it.  A right cacophony of birdsong, and delightful it was too!  Whether the intention was to waken the dead or just remind their neighbours that this was their patch is unclear, while the amount of noise from one small bird is amazing.

Window

Nothing came......

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Sunday Night Music

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Saturday Night Music

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Clouds

Today the sun returned to greet us and pretend it was the month of May.  In spite of the snow falling in the Grampians we found large areas of blue showing between the clouds.   Such a change after days of gray fluff hanging above us and happily drenching the unwary with sudden downpours.  Today I sat and watched the vast clouds in the distance.  As I have said before having spent so many years in concrete London where the sky is seen only by looking straight up I still find pleasure in watching the clouds in a blue sky.  Today their movement was hastened by a brisk wind.  Chasing my cap assured me how brisk this was!  So I sat and watched the cloud formations in the distance and marvelled at the sheer size of the things.  Climbing thousands of feet into the air and often stretching for miles, continent wide on occasion.

When I first came out here I realised why John Constable spent so much time painting clouds.  He  dwelt, in some comfort I should say, about thirty minutes drive for here, well thirty minutes if you drove like my driver did that time.  'Scuse me while I breathe deeply for a moment.  He (Constable) spent much time sketching and painting clouds.  Possibly he wondered what created them and blamed the industrial revolution for polluting the planet and creating global warming, possibly not.  Possibly he just painted and got on with his work.   

Why I wonder are they so flat at the bottom but not in the middle?  Could this be to let planes take off without hitting them, as some of us once loudly told one another while watching planes depart at Gatwick. "It's so the planes don't get scratched," we said, much to the irritation of anoraks listening in to pilots radio messages on their handsets.  Apart from the Daily Mail' who regularly post pictures of clouds that look like the UK, or a giraffe or Jesus, it is possible to become entranced by the shape of clouds.  Wind currents play about with them sometimes making intriguing patterns.  There again, maybe I have just spent far too much time indoors this week....?

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Unfortunate Links

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