Night Out!

The Dawn Patroller is a member of Fraserburgh Photographic Society.  Each year the Society has an evening when partners are allowed in and the idea is is that we scoff everything that each has left over from the Christmas, and more importantly here, the Ne'er Day (New Years Day) festivities.  Well, I dont know about you but there is never anything left.

 So its off to T**** .  And seeing what the rest of the Society brought they did the same.  Altho there were some very strange sandwiches which we were told were minced ham (?) and egg.  An interesting taste. ..... Not sure of the texture....or if they were left over.....
But there was plenty wine, cheese and biscuits.  Sausage rolls, quiche, crisps and peanuts. (The latter donors, we know who you are, cheapskates.)

The highlight of the evening is the slide show.  One year it was "This is the building that was bombed, here is another building that was bombed, " and so on.  Did you know Fraserburgh was the second place to London that had the most bombs dropped?  Well, neither did I, but on their way home the nasty Nazis jettisoned any old bomb they had left.  On Fraserburgh.  Now some people think that is still a good idea.

Anyway last night was on the 1960s and 1970s.

 No - this was in the 1930s, one of the posters produced by the railways to promote train travel.  But in the era we were looking at we still had trains and a train station.

 The buses looked like this.

Kids looked like this, no change there then.

 

 And Fraserburgh had THE BEATLES!!!!!!  Before they were famous, and pre Ringo too and not sure about the one on the right.

(I also saw the Beatles before they were famous, but they did have Ringo. )

Now I have a confession to make.  None of these pictures were seen last night.  No.  We had photograph after photograph of Fraserburgh Gala throughout the two decades with various people saying " Is that Alex/Donald/Sandy/ Moira/Mhairi ?" followed by a detailed account of how, when and from what they died and what a splendid funeral they did or didnt have.

So I leave you with yet another photograph that we didnt see last night.

 

O me miserum.

Just welcoming an  old 'friend' back. Pleurisy.  Actually returned on Saturday, but I didnt recognise it, though I knew I was not 'right'.  Could it be an allergy to grandchildren?  Last time Pleurisy came to visit was following a visit from the grandsons.  Small children do harbour germs do they not.  One reason why I packed in volunteering in schools was on Doctors Orders after a run of chest infections.  But you can't exactly pack in grandchildren can you?  Should I wear a mask?  Hmm.

Now I am stocked up on large yellow antibiotics, my bed close by, wine glass filled (it doesnt say anything about not drinking with these tablets, my gp knows me well.)  And I dont see much difference to the 'hot toddy' hes always telling me to have.

The weather isnt helping.  The wind finally dropped today after days and days of such rawness and wind speed, it nearly took the skin off you

 Though it doesnt bother some people.

Or beasts.

And some people take their camera into the car wash and use it.  What else is there to do?

O me miserum.

Thursdays Thunder.

Our Postie delivered a card today.  Inside which was this.

And written inside was this.

What can I say?


Well I could say, "Now you are free, your body under a tree."


But I won't. (although I just did,)


Now does anyone remember my placing my 'art' in the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses?

I got a text message today to say ONE HAS BEEN SOLD!!!!  I am an artist.


No idea which one was sold.


But I have a few replacements all ready....


So - that was the thunder, and to be fair, the lightening was from my lovely vets.

Wednesdays Witterings.

Yesterday, along with all the traumas, the Dawn Patroller and I went for our eyes testing.

He is fine.  Think positive.  One of my eyes is better (?) but the other is worse.  So new glasses for me.  But its a buy one get one free.  Even with all this new technology so you can see your new glasses on your face before you select its still very confusing, so I go with what the 12 year old glasses technician tells me.  The sun glasses I look very much like Ronnie Corbett.

The main pair, well, you will just have to wait and see (ha) as I will, as I cannot for the life of me remember what the 12 year old glasses technician chose.  But I think they are purple.  And as Practising wearing purple is one of my favourite poems.  Well now.

As it was then lunch time we decided to be naughty and have a Macdonalds.  Hmm.  Quarter pound cheese burger looked to be about 2 ounces and didnt have any cheese on.  Plus we were sat in a howling gale as the drive through bit wasnt working so there was a constant stream of staff going out with drive thru orders and coming back in again.  The gherkin was as good as I remember it.

Then it was B&Q - make the most of our trips to Peterhead we do - not one thing on my list did they have.  But I still managed to spend too much.

So digging a hole in the pouring rain was quite a relief for the DP, and him with a cold poor thing, but at least the hole wasnt for him.

This morning was art class and we started on our 'old farm machinery', which didnt go down well with the majority of the students, but they were getting to grips, or ploughs, or rotavators by the end of the session.

The highlight of my day was that one of the more professional and experienced members of the group gave me a present.  And this is it.

I made him sign it, it'll be worth a bit when he's dead.

Tuesdays Termination.

Now be warned and look away now if you are of a sensitive disposition.  I deal with tragedy with laughter. When my Father was carried up the church steps in his coffin and the bearers tripped, my brother and I howled with laughter as our Dad would have just howled with laughter along with us.


 So here goes.


Puzzle and I went off to the vets this morning.  

As we entered the radio was swiftly turned down a notch or three in volume and the receptionist, in a hushed voice, told me to sit away from everyone else.  Well I wasnt going to sit next to this lot, with a cat, was I?


Whilst this lots owners were eyeing me up and trying to see what was in the box and why the whispers from the receptionist, I was then called in to one of the consulting rooms.  Fully expecting to see the inside of a funeral parlour, and indeed I was asked to sit down and handed a box of tissues.

"Monica will be with you soon."  


So I sat there and Puzzle peered at me through the perspex door on his cat box.  


While I gave the top right hand corner of the room a fierce glare.  


Eventually in came the vet.  In a very low voice she assured me I had made the right decision.  


GET ON WITH IT. 

Then she went off to get a nurse to hold him.  Didnt think I could cope.  Please? 

In came the nurse, 


"Its his back legs you have to watch out for,"  I said.  


Off the nurse went returning with a huge bath towel.


Most of the movements were done on tippy toe. 


Indeed I was awaiting the angelic choir by  this time.

Well - I was proud of him.  Despite losing most of his body weight, struggling to breathe, he really showed them what for.  Ha.


And then he slept.  And then all the pain and suffering was gone.


Its taken all day, in between downpours, to get him under the sod.  With the first of our new spinney of trees on top.


The DP forgot to take his collar off.  I told him, in a few years time you'll have the metal detectors round thinking they have struck gold.  What with magnets to get in the cat door and bells to scare off potential prey.


But the Rowan tree looks good.  Keeping away the witches, with my familiar beneath.

Monday's Meanderings.

Last night's sunset in the land of the big sky.

As the earth has tilted, as it does, the sunset is back where I consider it belongs.  It also means we have to give some serious consideration to the patio/decking to be put outside the dining room patio door so that we can sit outside with our glasses of wine. and count the pennies.




This plant was a gift from the SIL.  The instruction label said it can withstand a few degrees of frost, so I put it in a pot, as you NEVER KNOW, it might be minus 14 tonight.

The pot to its left has lily bulbs.  Yes I did say I had liberated all the lily bulbs, but there were an awful lot of them, so the smaller ones got put in the pot.

We have a fair few tulips which I am pleased with, as our previous home had none when we moved in and we were still only on single blooms when we left.

The above is one of two Rogersii that I brought with us from the previous home.  Both have survived and are thriving.  My previous blog readers and current ones will be yawning by now as I am SO PROUD of this plant I do go on and on about it.  Wait till you see the spike it sends up.  The reason I am so proud is that it aint supposed to grow up here and it was purchased, well the original one, from the 'Dead Plant please give tlc'  stand at the garden centre.


The house is called Cherry Cottage.  (I will eventually get around to using Christines translation into Gaelic as it annoys me the name is so twee and not Scottish at all.)
And yes we do have a fair few cherry trees.  Of which some are at their best.  And some are yet to come.

Blogs should be honest.  I always appreciate fellow bloggers who have the guts to say just what they feel.  Life isnt always cherry blossom and tulips.  Or wine and dandelions.

Puzzle had his trip to the vets this morning.  Two options.  More invasive surgery, the lump is growing inwards, not easy to operate in the throat, and then what?  So we have gone for the other option and he is currently doing what he enjoys - being outside - under the hedge, until tomorrow when he will be under a tree.


A-men to Mondays meanderings.

Mondays Meanderings.

Just look at this amazing poster, advertising See Scotland by Train.  The silhouettes of the buildings and the beach are still there, and I think the building, on the left, could be the Beach Cafe, which is also still there.

My second daughter works at the newly refurbished Museum in Edinburgh and sent me this.


Right, more history.



During the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, a large number of, usually circular, burial mounds were erected in prominent locations to intern important members of the community. The rites of inhumation (in short, stone-lined cist graves), and cremation (in large pottery urns), were practised.  Aberdeenshire Council.

This one is huge, and is the remaining one of three, at Memsie, not far from here.

The picture below gives a better idea of the size as you can see the house behind it.

Nice view!

This morning's deer via the DP.

And as lambing continues apace some more aww pictures (and dreams of mint sauce Penny.)

I'll just meander along to the bottle of wine.

Rooted in the North East!

Rosehearty lies on the north facing coast of Aberdeenshire four miles west of
Fraserburgh.   It was probably first settled by Danish fishermen in the 1300s and the name means Abhartach's Point in Old Gaelic. History fails to record who Abhartach was.

Fishertown Cottages Observation Tower

In 1424 the Fraser family built Pitsligo Castle on a site a few hundred yards inland from the coast. This was considerably enlarged by the Forbes family in 1570: the Frasers moving to Pittulie Castle which they built a short distance to the east. The remains of the two castles can be seen from Rosehearty.

In the 1630s Sir Alex Forbes, resident of Pitsligo Castle and later to become the First Lord Pitsligo, dramatically expanded the existing settlement of Rosehearty. The aim was to develop a large commercial fishery, with Sir Alex taking 20% of everything landed at his new port. The harbour probably dates back to this expansion, and Pitsligo Church was built in 1632. 

Undiscovered Scotland.co.uk.

Hugh Mercer (January 17, 1726 – January 12, 1777) was a soldier and physician. He initially served with British forces during the Seven Years War, but later became a brigadier general in the Continental Army and a close friend to George Washington. Mercer died as a result of his wounds received at the Battle of Princeton and became a fallen hero and rallying symbol of the American Revolution.

Mercer was born near Rosehearty, at the manse of Pitsligo Kirk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to Presbyterian Minister, Reverend William Mercer of Pitsligo Parish Church and Ann Monro.^[1] At 15, he attended the University of Aberdeen, Marischal College, studying medicine and graduated a Doctor. He was assistant surgeon in the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745, and was present at the Battle of Culloden when Charles' Army was crushed on April 16, 1746, and any survivors were hunted down and killed.^[2] As a fugitive in his own homeland in 1747, Mercer fled Scotland after months in hiding. He bought his way onto a ship and moved to America, settling near what is now Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and practiced medicine for eight years.^{[3]  Wikepedia.}

In April this year the American Envoy is to come to Rosehearty and tart up the family grave or lair as they are known in Scotland.  Whooo.  

There's more!

• Sir Walter Murdoch (1876-1970), Australian academic and essayist; Murdoch University in Western Australia is named after him; Walter Murdoch was born in Rosehearty and spend the first 10 years of his life there, the youngest of 14 siblings, before emigrating with his family to Melbourne in 1886; his father James Murdoch was the Free Kirk minister at Rosehearty. He was the uncle of Keith Murdoch, born in Melbourne, after his father Patrick Murdoch, another F.K. minister, and also a son of James Murdoch, had emigrated from Cruden in 1884; the later Sir Keith Murdoch established the newspaper empire that his son Rupert Murdoch took over and turned into the present media conglomerate Newscorp.  Wikepedia.

Hmmmm.

I could go on.  Have I told you about Mr Glover?  Thomas Blake Glover, perhaps tomorrow.  Dont want to overload you.

Right now back to normal.

Three white tails = three deer.

There is a heronry just across the field.  Imagine a heron, gangly legs ok?  In the top of a pine tree ?  Oh yes, nesting?  Oh yes.

Awesome.  Beak, sharp pointy thing, with twigs, up a very waving about tree.  Laying eggs, imagine, doesnt bear thinking about does it.  I am so glad I am a human being not expected to go up a tree, and balance.  I find that difficult enough ......down on the ground.

And this chap and his mates has found our bird table.  Not a rook its a vacuum.

Still rooted in the North East.

Wednesday Witterings.

A smile to begin with.

This is one of our neighbours, little does he know that he is to be my first attempt at portrait painting.  Wattie is in his 8os.  Still farms, best potatoes in Lonmay.
And he has more garden gnomes and others of such ilk in front of his farmhouse than anyone.

This one - well, I really must get to grips with my backgrounds.

Art class today was so much fun.  Different takes on the Hopper painting of a lighthouse.

Mine, not pictured, as I am a week behind everyone else, is a pen and ink with water colour wash, so different yet again.  Caught up this afternoon, so may inflict it on you tomorrow.


And now for some really good news.  When the doctor was called out to save me from what I thought was imminent death, which of course it wasnt.  Along with the 'life saving' antibiotics, steroids, massive pain relievers he prescribed me an add on inhaler for my chronic lung disease.  For the first time in 18 months I CAN BREATHE.


I have already managed to walk round the WHOLE of Tescos, and leave my car in a car park and walk to the cafe, instead of risking parking fines and being tasered, AND I have removed all the bags of rubbish from the Shed to the other side of the house aka the bin.


Tomorrow I am slashing back overgrown bushes, vaccing, mopping, cleaning windows, changing beds, ironing (no not ironing), and maybe just boring you all even further with another blog.