The Spirit of Hadrian’s Wall

I was just supposed to be taking books back to the library, not looking for any more to borrow, but when I turned away from the counter I was confronted by The Spirit of Hadrian’s Wall – Photographs by Roger Clegg and Words by Mark Richards. It was in a special display so I couldn’t miss it and it was one of those serendipity moments as I had just signed up to do the Hadrian’s Wall course at Futurelearn, obviously I had to borrow it.

It’s a really lovely book with gorgeous atmospheric photographs of the wall and the surrounding area. I imagine it would make a great present for anyone local to Northumberland who would know the subjects well, or just anyone who loves that part of the north of England. The book is mainly photographs but the writing is interesting too.

You can see quite a lot of the inside of the book if you click here.

Fighting on the Home Front by Kate Adie

Fighting on the Home Front by Kate Adie is subtitled The Legacy of Women in World War One. I found it to be a really interesting read and although I’ve read numerous books about the war I learned a lot from this one. For instance, I had no idea that towards the end of the war there were thousands of women more or less right on the front lines. They had been recruited to free men up for fighting and they were doing all the cooking, cleaning, driving tasks and such – which men had been doing until then.

Did you know that there was an English woman in the Serbian Army? Her name was Flora Sandes and she was a sergeant major, she had started off as a St John Ambulance volunteer but begged to be allowed to fight when she saw that she was needed.

Women’s lives were changed radically but it was always known that the work they were doing was ‘only for the duration’ and they would have to go back to their domestic duties after the war. Although women got the vote due mainly to their war efforts, in some ways things went backwards so far that we still haven’t recovered the ground. It’s only now that women’s football is beginning to be taken seriously but during the war there were lots of female teams playing, due to the lack of men.

This book has interesting photos as well as lots of new (to me anyway) information. It’s a must read for anyone interested in the social history of the time. Kate Adie often adds in bits about what was happening within her own family in Sunderland at particular times during the war. Somehow those bits didn’t sit well within the book, especially as the Adie family was always described as her adoptive family, as if she was defending herself from any possible accusations of them not being her ‘real’ family. One mention of adoption would have been enough – not that I think it was necessary at all.

I believe that this book featured as a BBC Book at Bedtime.

You can find BBC podcasts about the role of women in World war 1 here.

Preston Mill and Phantassie Doocot, East Lothian

Preston Mill

The week before we went to the Netherlands we visited Preston Mill and Phantassie Doocot in East Lothian. They are Scottish National Trust properties. The mill is a really interesting place to look around, in fact I hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much. The doocot is still in use as a dovecot and you can’t see inside it but we walked along to it from the mill, it was a gorgeous day for a stroll and there’s a nice river to look at. Apparently there are kingfishers there but we didn’t see any.
Preston Mill
The drying area of the mill is especially quirky, as you can see it resembles a witch’s hat, it looks as if it should be part of a film set, the house of a hobbit or something. You can read more about it here.

Preston Mill

In fact the guide told us that the place has been the location for some filming of Outlander, but I’ve never seen it. Culross in Fife is also used as a location. I’m going to have to start watching Outlander so that I can spot the locations.

Below is the doocot, the strangest one I’ve ever seen.

Phantassie Doocot
Although there is no flour milled nowadays they are running all the machinery so that you can see exactly how it all worked. I had no idea that mills were so complicated, the whole thing is very Heath Robinson-ish but it works.

The mill has a long history of being flooded and it was only after it was flooded badly in 1959 that the miller called it a day and decided to pass the mill on to the Scottish National Trust. Below is the water wheel which runs all the machinery.
Preston Mill
If you go to visit you should make time to take the walk around the nearby fields. We were lucky enough to see a heron flying off the river right in front of us, he flew into the adjacent field to eat the fish which he had just caught.

heron

I took the last photo looking back towards the doocot. It all seems so long ago but it was only just over a month ago that we visited these places, it’s just that we’ve done so much in between then and now, and I have such a huge backlog of blogposts. This is a lovely part of East Lothian, although nothing as scenic as the west of course!

E Linton and doocot

Two Dutch Horses

I used the video facility on my camera for the first time, to film the Dutch branch of the Skirving family’s horses. Earlier I had fed them by hand and I think they were expecting some more food from me, so they moved across to me quite quickly and I was a bit alarmed as I was on my own. Would they stop at the fence or try to walk through it, if they wanted to get out I’nm sure they could easily. I suspect they know they live a nice easy life there though!

Anyway, you can here me saying a rather scared ‘hello.’ It doesn’t sound like me. My voice isn’t normally so high-pitched. It must be nerves. Those horses are big beasts, the biggest is called Oliver, about 17 hands high, he’s on the right. Prior to meeting these horses my closest encounter with anything like that was an amble along a beach on the back of a donkey!

When they realised that I didn’t have anything exciting for them to scoff they backed off and I swear to you that they posed for this photo when I stopped filming. Tara’s the one with the white face and she is the naughty one, you have to keep an eye on her as she is apt to take a nibble at you. My brother says that most mares are like that – he would!

Horses

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: August 6th 1983 by Hilary Mantel

On Saturday the Guardian review published Hilary Mantel’s new short story about the assassination of Margaret Thatcher, if you’re interested you can read it here.

Mantel was inspired to write the story after catching a glimpse of Thatcher from her window. You can read about it here. She had some difficulties in working the whole thing into a short story and when she managed it it was sold to The Telegraph for tens of thousands of pounds apparently. Obviously the subject matter doesn’t appeal to your average right-wing Telegraph reader. So the Guardian published it instead.

Now the Conservatives are complaining that the short story should never have been published, and there are talks of involving the police. It seems that nowadays we are not to be allowed to even think about things which might possibly upset some people on the extreme right. You can read about Hilary Mantel’s reaction here.

Thinking about doing something doesn’t come close to actually doing it, neither is writing about it. If it were I would have spent most of my life in jail!

Forthcoming Rebecca Read

Joan from Planet Joan and I are planning to do a Rebecca re-read, hoping to write about our thoughts on it sometime towards the end of October. If you fancy joining in with us you’re more than welcome, whether it’s a re-read for you or you’re a first time reader of Rebecca. In fact I’d be really interested to hear what a first time reader thinks of the Daphne du Maurier classic which has always been a favourite of mine. Maybe it will seem too dated for readers now, but I don’t think so, I hope not anyway.

I believe that Peggy at Peggy Ann’s Post is going to join in with us, and maybe Michelle of In the Silver Room too, I think.

The Netherlands

Holland 2 010

The photo above is the first view we got of the place we were staying in in the Netherlands, you can see the stables straight ahead where the four horses live, there were five but one died a few months ago – old age, she had a good innings.

Holland 2 009

As you can see, the house itself is thatched although not completely thatched, in common with a lot of Dutch houses. The tiles are shiny black ones, very different from the orange terracotta tiles which are common in Scotland, and those ones came originally from the Netherlands too, as ballast in ships. All of the houses in the area are different from each other. The farmers just seem to have drawn houses and got local builders to put build them. It’s just as well that the houses were individual as it helped me to recognise places, otherwise the very flat landscape bamboozled me, I need hills and natural outcrops to help me to know where I am.

Holland 2 011

The wee house which you can see to the left of the main house is completely thatched and in the past it was used for cooking and eating in. The farm workers weren’t allowed to trail their muck and mud into the house so the farmhouses all have these structures. Now the mini house is used as a laundry room, like an updated wash house, very handy as it keeps all the washing machine noise out of the house.

Holland 4 008

The photo of the stained glass above is one of five windows which were in our bedroom. I love stained glass and I think this design would transfer really well into a patchwork quilt design. Maybe one day I’ll get around to doing it!

Billy by Pamela Stephenson

The biography Billy by Pamela Stephenson was one of the books which my brother gave me during my recent visit to his home in the Netherlands, he is obviously trying to make room for more books, like most of us.

I started reading it on the six hour ferry trip from the Hook of Holland to Harwich and almost got to the end of it when it was time to roll off the ferry.

Pamela Stephenson is of course Billy Connolly’s wife of some 30 odd years and as she is now a clinical psychologist it seems that she is the perfect partner for him. Her profession must certainly be a help with understanding the complex personality which is Billy.

As a Glaswegian myself I recognised a lot of the descriptions and experiences of life in the city. I lived the first five years of my life in a different part of the city but so many of the stories of Billy’s early life brought back memories of back courts where the ‘big’ boys spent their time doing crazy things, jumping over wash house roofs and such, the pre-cursor to those people who participated in that mad building running and jumping craze of a few years ago – what was that called?! I well remember my sister shouting “Mum, Jacky’s dreeping!” – meaning that my brother was risking life and limb by dropping down from very high walls.

This book was first published in 2001 and Stephenson tells of Billy’s life from birth until then. His childhood was incredibly traumatic as he suffered physical and sexual abuse within his family on a daily basis, it’s quite incredible that he survived it and turned into the multi-talented person that he is now.

Billy is the first to admit that there are loads of guys in the west of Scotland with the same snappy ability to make people laugh, it’s just part of the character of the west, and something that I really miss.

Sadly Billy has recently been diagnosed with early Parkinson’s and prostate cancer – both on the same day, how unlucky is that? But he’s not downhearted and seems to be making a fine recovery from the cancer anyway. If you’re a fan of Billy you’ll find the book really interesting, although given the subject matter it’s obviously not a laugh a minute.

Living near Glasgow as I did back then when he was just beginning his career I occasionally saw Billy around the place, sometimes in John Smith’s Bookshop perusing the books, he’s a keen reader, then of course he moved to Drymen when he started to get quite well known within Scotland, again not far from where I lived. My brother rubbed shoulders with him at various things to do with shipbuilding back then in the late 1960s when Billy was doing the folk stuff which kicked off his career at the same time as working as a welder.

The thing which brought him to the notice of the wider public in the rest of Britain was his take off of Tammy Wynette’s song Divorce, in 1975. He was on Top of the Pops with it and his version got higher in the charts than Tammy’s.

He followed that up with a spoof of YMCA in 1976.

The Result – No

I couldn’t bear to watch even one result coming through last night, I went to bed with a book and woke up to the news on our clock radio this morning. I must admit that although I didn’t expect a Yes vote to win I did think it would be closer.

The sad fact is that so many people were just too afraid of change. People were worried about their pensions and interest rates and most of the folks who are feeling fine and dandy and living a comfy life were too afraid of a possible lowering of their living standards. I think that that is what bothers me most, the No voters are short sighted and are just thinking ‘I’m all right Jack’ and to hell with the people who are definitely not all right. The Yes voters were often voting Yes because it was a ray of hope on the horizon, in an area which has had all of the industry shut down over the years and nothing replacing it except the possibility of a low paid zero hours contract if they are lucky. I feel ashamed that those people have been given yet another slap in the face – and from their ‘ain folks’.

We were love bombed towards the end of the campaign and now that Westminster have the result they wanted they can go back to ignoring Scotland again. They promised non-specific jam sometime in the future and a large amount of the electorate clutched on to that, devo max seemed a better option than a jump into the unknown.

I watched the Scottish BBC lunchtime news today and a reporter interviewed two men who had been standing in a queue waiting to to buy a new gadget which was just about to be put on sale, a new iPhone or something. They had both voted No and that says it all really. The sort of people who were afraid that they might not be able to afford a new toy voted No, obviously not worrying that there are other people who are having to rely on food banks to feed their kids because there are no jobs for them. I felt ashamed of those men. I expected that a Yes win might mean some leaner years for me but it would have been worth it for the greater good.

Already Nick Robinson, the BBC political correspondent has been on the TV news saying that as there is going to be a Westminster election in the not too distant future those promises need never be thought of again. If the electorate doesn’t get rid of Cameron in an election then the Tory party probably will and whoever takes over from Cameron can just say that he didn’t agree to any more power being given to Holyrood.

Am I downhearted? Well I was, but not for long. I view this result as a bit of a hiccup in the history of Scotland’s independence – which we will get eventually. At the beginning of the campaign the number of people who were in favour of independence was very small, it’s quite amazing that 45% voted Yes, especially when you take into account the lies and biased reporting on the BBC. Has anyone told that chap Nick Robinson that he is supposed to report on things in a fair and balanced manner?!

As ever the last word should be reserved for good old Robert the Bruce: Try, try again!

Yes or No? Scotland’s Independence Referendum

Yes

These are a couple of the sights which I saw in rural Fife today. The first photo is of a house in Falkland, the inhabitants are obviously proud Scots who want to let everyone know that they will be voting Yes in tomorrow’s independence referendum.

The photo below was taken not far away from the Yes house. You can’t see it clearly as the No was written in blue on the hay bales by the local farmer. The banner above says Proud to be Scots. Delighted to be United.

No

There have been similar sights all over Scotland, often the opposing posters are in neighbouring fields, so even the farming communities are completely split by this big decision.

I did think that I would be one of those people swithering over the ballot paper but quite a while ago I decided to vote Yes, for lots of different reasons.

The No voters are cramped by fear of the unknown and most of them seem to be voting No because they have a fear that they will soemehow lose their old age pension. I have no such fear as I have already been bounced out of a pension by the recent decision takers at Westminster. I also think it’s hilarious that people are worried about the paltry pensions which they get at the moment, just about the lowest in the European Community.

My main reason for voting Yes is my worry about the future of the National Health Service. The powers that be at Westminster are busy planning to privatise the health service and I have no wish to live in a country which chooses to allow businessmen to make profits from sick people, that’s obscene and completely immoral as far as I’m concerned.

Another reason I’ll be voting Yes is the fact that Cameron has promised to hold a referendum about the future of the UK in Europe – in 2016 I believe. I don’t know of anyone in Scotland who wants to leave the European Community but I do know that England is full of people who want to leave Europe. From those so-called middle class Little Englanders (the type of person who when you are introduced to them as a Scot say to you – Well the least said about THAT the better. Really they have no manners at all!) to the rabidly mental HATE tattoed skinheads of the BNP and not forgetting the Ukip weirdos.

Of course I want to get rid of nuclear weapons from Scotland too. If we didn’t have that horrific base in the west of Scotland then we wouldn’t have had the likes of Obama weighing in with his thoughts on the matter. Is it just me or do other people think that it’s just outrageous when people from other countries try to exert pressure on us?

If as is predicted tomorrow’s vote ends up with a very narrow win for the Better Together No voters, it’ll be very interesting to see what will happen if the UK tries to take Scotland out of Europe. What will the No voters feel like then?

Whatever happens, we’ll definitely have an independent Scotland eventually, no matter what nonsense the bankers and businessmen spout. It might not be in my lifetime though and I might just have to put up with devo-max.

At the moment though I’m worried about poor wee Nicola Sturgeon, the poor lassie looks knackered. She could be doing with a few bowls of my home-made soup to build up her energy again!