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CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
The Flag in the Wind
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language
Scottish Poets in America
Chronicles of Gretna Green
Life Jottings of an Old Edinburgh Citizen
James Ballantine
Calendar Of Documents Relating to Scotland
Northern Notes and Queries
A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld (New Book)
Songs of Robert Burns
Clan Martin
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
James Maxwell
Henderson, Daniel Mclntyre
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Well we did try and add a comments system but hit problems. We believe we can overcome these problems but it will take some work. We tested things on a special page that didn't have our shared borders and it looked great. However when we tried to replicate that through the site it simply didn't work. We do know what the problem is but it will take work to sort it. The other problem was getting the email system working as we do require people to create an account to be able to add a comment. The newspapers all do this as well as it gives basic security. And again, like the newspapers, we will moderate each post. The system can be configured so that we can pre approve certain users to be given instant posting rights. There are also options to share these comments on social networks. And so hopefully we'll get this system running in the next few weeks as I think it will be of great benefit to the site and our visitors.
I'm hoping that visitors will add any additional information they might have on the page they are reading and even correct information that is there. so over time this could provide an extra level of information for us all.
I might add that our efforts to get this working meant I couldn't publish to the site for a couple of days so a bit lighter on contents than usual this week.
-----
Community upgrades have yet to be implemented. I'm not quite sure what Steve is doing on this as he said he had everything downloaded ready to go but when I spoke to him yesterday he said he was downloading all the updates. So as you can imagine I'm a bit puzxled but hopefully he'll get to this in the next week.
And speaking of the community I have added a "Scottish Independence" forum where I plan to add some posts giving more information on progress towards the Independence referdeum. I also took the time to remove some forums that were not being used and also merged some forums. Like I removed the Sport Group and merged some of the posts in it to a Sport forum in the Lifestyle Group.
I will be doing some more work on the Lifestyle Group as there are other forums in there not really seeing any use so will remove them.
And so with the soon to be implemented upgrade, updates, new additions and general maintenance this should tighten up the system and hopefully make it more useful.
STOP PRESS: As I was just completing the newsletter Steve phoned to say he now has everything he needs to go forward with the upgrades, etc. and hopes to get started later tonight and will be working on the system over the next three days and so over the weekend.
ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks issue has been Compiled by Gary Knox and a chatty one it is with a wide range of topics.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language
----------------------------------------------
We've added more to this dictionary...
Scottish Language Letter M
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eson/index.htm
Scottish Poets in America
-------------------------
With Biographical and Critical Notices by John D, Ross (1889)
Now added...
Massie, Dr. John
This is a new entry for this week and can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet.../chapter13.htm
The other entries can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...rica/index.htm
Chronicles of Gretna Green
--------------------------
By Peter Orlando Hutchinson (1844)
We have now completed this book by adding...
Chapter XIX.
Story of an Elopement from Bath to Gretna
Chapter XX.
Recapitulation of the subject
Chapter XXI.
Advice to Young Ladies
You can read these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...etna/index.htm
Life Jottings of an Old Edinburgh Citizen
-----------------------------------------
By Sir J. H. A. MacDonald P.C., K.C.B., Lord Justice-Clerk.
Added this week...
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bar examinations—Public examination—Sham thesis—Sham ballot—The wig—Lord Colonsay's Highland accent—Lord Deas' Lowland accent— The Speculative Society—Honorary members—Alexander Asher
Chapter Twenty-Four
My first fee—Waiting time for practice- -Attractions of Justiciary and jury Courts—Cross-examination often a pitfall—Walking the Parliament House — Advice to young advocate — Daily study to avoid mental atrophy—Lord Jeffrey to his brother (note, p. 308)—Experience of men— Junes and judges and witnesses—Strain of criminal cases—Strange experiences—Capital cases—Book on Criminal Law
Chapter Twenty-Five
Circuit Courts—Advocates attending—The old complicated indictments — Ceremonial Circuits—Lord Cockburri's view—Shamstate—Circuit dinners —An anachronism—Delay of trials—Iess of this now—Diminution of cases at Circuit—The Bar room—No professional jealousy--Patience needed--Instances of delay in success
These chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ings/index.htm
James Ballantine
----------------
We continue our book "Gaberlunzies Wallet" and now have up Chapter 11 which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nine/index.htm
Calendar Of Documents Relating to Scotland
------------------------------------------
By Joseph Bain
Our thanks to John Henderson for compiling this for us. This week we've added...
Volume 3
1330 to 1339
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...bain/index.htm
Northern Notes and Queries
--------------------------
Edited by Rev. R. W. Cornelious Hallen (1886)
We now have up the next Issue of this publication which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld
---------------------------------------
And in Blair of Atholl (1823)
Added this week...
Killicrankie to Blair
Home Grounds of Blair
Outer Grounds of Blair - Tilt Walks - Fender
In Killicrankie to Blair the account starts...
The road has now entered the celebrated pass of Kilicrankie; a spot assuredly not more celebrated than it deserves, though better known, perhaps, tor its military and historical fame, than for its wild magnificence. The change of scenery is here so complete as to re-excite our attention, which the fifteen preceding miles might have dulled. it is such as nearly to obliterate all that has past. For nearly a mile, the hills seem to close, as if denying all further access to the Highlands beyond. Rising steep and sudden on both sides, they meet below in a deep chasm, through which the river seems to struggle for a passage, among rocks and under precipices, and beneath the overshadowing foliage of the woods that hang feathering over it, giving occasional glimpses of the water as it runs, now silent and dark, and now boiling and foaming, along. Above the road, and on the right band, while the greet, fact of the mountain sweeps towards the sky, it is diversified with projecting rocks and scattered birches of ancient growth; formed below into continuous masses of wood, or into wild and irregular groups, and, above, separating dispersely, till, as the lofty acclivity recedes from the eye, a thin line of trees hanging over the mountain stream, or half concealed in the deep ravine, gradually vanishes; some solitary birch, with its thin foliage and light benditie tiwigs, still appearing, like a centinel, perched on its rook, or lightly projected on the sky, as if the forest still lingered, unwilling to leave its native hill.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter10.htm
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...keld/index.htm
Songs of Robert Burns
---------------------
We added "Love: Humorous" to this book and have also added 18 songs toward the latter half of this page. We've provided a scan of each song with the sheet music and also provided a link so you can listen to the song being sung. Our thanks to John Henderson for providing there for us.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/songs/index.htm
Clan Martin
-----------
Got in a historical update on the clan which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/martin2.html
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
-----------------------------
We now have the February 2012 issue available at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
And I have been following Beth's long attempts at finding a new home so am delighed to include here "Letter from your Editor" in which she finds that new home...
We have looked for “the perfect” house for about five years. At first we thought we could build - and spent quite awhile working on our dream house plans. That turned out not to be practical for us, so we started looking at houses and learning about renovations and to overlook small “boo-boos” in a house and how we could fix what was not perfect for us..
Our house hunt was hard and long. You see, we needed something large - close to 4000 sq. feet - with a bit of land - at least five acres - for my horses, Tom’s mule and a garden, chickens, etc. The house had to be large enough for two offices, a library, a formal dining room, big porches and room for our friends to come and visit.
There are many houses that fit all of these rquirements. These houses are always easy to find. However, houses which are large, with land, ususally sell for LOTS of money. We wanted to pay cash for the house...which meant a very real budget.
We discovered that we have a rare talent. If you have a piece of real estate or a house for sale and nobody has shown the slightest bit of interest in it for years...just let Tom and Beth come and fall in love with it and someone will write a contract either that afternoon or early the next morning. This has happened to us over and over and over again.
I reckon we’ve loved maybe six houses in five years - the last one was a beautiful log home that sold to someone else the Friday before Tom’s land sold on Saturday. We had been so sure that was THE ONE. That stung! We had always said to each other, “When the time is right, the best house of all for us will show up.”
Two days after the land was under contract, Tom found a listing on the Internet that showed only four photos and did not have near the information we needed. This listing left out things like the square footage of the house and the size of the proplerty that went with it. It did have one picture of a curving stone wall that intrigued both of us. We sort of passed over this listing because of the lack of information and photos. I’ll bet we had looked at ten thousand houses, all over the country, on the Internet and had passed over all of them.
That night, I kept thinking about that curved stone wall. “Maybe if I look for other listings, I might find a better one that will tell us everything we need, “ I thought. The next morning, I looked for more listings of this house on the Internet. I found one that was on YouTube. This one was a three and a half minute video of the house. Before it was done, I was hollering for Tom to come see....I woke him up and was hollering so that he thought I had been attacked by an alligator or maybe a lion or something huge and hairy like a Big Foot with big teeth. While he was getting up and getting to me to rescue me from whatever evidentally had me by the throat, I was breaking land speed records typing an email to our long suffering real estate agent - hollering to Tom all the while. I wrote to Dick: “This is the house. We knew it would show up. Please do whatever you need to do to buy it before someone else gets it! We don’t
have to see it in person, just buy it. QUICK.”
In about 2 minutes, Dick, our realtor, was on the phone telling us he was out the door to go see the house and that he would arrange for us to go the next morning. He did - and loved it. We did - and loved
it. He wrote an offer on that house that very day. The right house had come along at the right time, just like we knew it would! That was maybe two months ago and the negotiations turned into stress, stress, stress for us. I told Dick at one point that I was curled in the fetal position in Tom’s closet gnawing on the tails of all of Tom’s Hawiian shirt collection. (I truly wanted to do that - but did not have time.) Dick persevered and the closing on our house is set for February 15. What a wonderful Valentine’s Day present!
It will take us awhile to move. We have to modify a bathroom for Tom so that he has a roll-in shower. We have to have a lift to get sweet Tom from first to second floor and second to first floor. We have to rip out carpet in the Terrace Level den and master bedroom since wheelchairs and carpet do not get along. Our friend and contractor, Rocky, will see to all this.
Rocky and Dick have been with us since the beginning of this and have become real friends along the way. Most of the large bits for the house will be delivered since we are “starting over” from pretty much scratch. However, both Tom and me and Tom’s late mother collected books forever. The upstairs of Tom’s house is filled to the brim with boxes of books and china and all manner of the acoutrements of my life...downstairs is likewise stuffed with things that Tom has accumulated along the way...and that have meaning to him. Plus five cats. Plus two horses.
What a gloriously happy time for all of us, including the four-legged members of our family! When we are moved in and have all the information like phone numbers, we’ll send our Christmas card list our new address and everything else, including a few photos of the house and an invitation to come and visit.
Long ago, Tom named our new house - long before we knew what or where it was to be. It is “Mo Leannan” which is Gaelic for “My Beloved.” (Thanks to Donald Macdonald for the translation!) There will be a brass plaque by the gate that will say, “Mo Leannan - Tom and Beth Freeman.” You see, Colin Grant-Adams sang a song at our Handfasting back in 2007 that included the words, “I will build my love a castle.” This house is as close as we could get.
Ya’ll come see us!
James Maxwell
-------------
James Clerk Maxwell, who was born at no. 14 India Street, Edinburgh, is generally regarded as one of the greatest physicists the world has ever seen. We've added a pdf book about him at the foot of this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...well_james.htm
Henderson, Daniel Mclntyre
--------------------------
We found a copy of his book of poems that was mentioned in the article we put up about him. You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet.../chapter05.htm
And finally...
The Sheik & the Scotsman
An Arab Sheik was admitted to St Vincents Hospital for heart surgery, but prior to the surgery,the doctors needed to store his blood in case the need arose.
As the gentleman had a rare type of blood,it couldn't be found locally, so, the call went out to all the states.
Finally a Scot was located who had a similar blood type. The Scot willingly donated his blood for the Arab.
After the surgery, the Arab sent the Scotsman as appreciation for giving his blood, a new BMW, diamonds & US dollars.
A couple of days later, once again, the Arab had to go through a corrective surgery.
His doctor telephoned the Scotsman who was more than happy to donate his blood again.
After the second surgery, the Arab sent the Scotsman a thank-you card & a jar of candies.
The Scotsman was shocked that the Arab this time did not reciprocate his kind gesture as he had anticipated.
He phoned the Arab & asked him: "I thought you would be generous again, that you would give me a BMW, diamonds & money... But you only gave me a thank-you card & a jar of candies".
To this the Arab replied: "Aye, but I now have Scottish blood in my veins".
And that's all for now and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
--------
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
The Flag in the Wind
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language
Scottish Poets in America
Chronicles of Gretna Green
Life Jottings of an Old Edinburgh Citizen
James Ballantine
Calendar Of Documents Relating to Scotland
Northern Notes and Queries
A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld (New Book)
Songs of Robert Burns
Clan Martin
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
James Maxwell
Henderson, Daniel Mclntyre
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Well we did try and add a comments system but hit problems. We believe we can overcome these problems but it will take some work. We tested things on a special page that didn't have our shared borders and it looked great. However when we tried to replicate that through the site it simply didn't work. We do know what the problem is but it will take work to sort it. The other problem was getting the email system working as we do require people to create an account to be able to add a comment. The newspapers all do this as well as it gives basic security. And again, like the newspapers, we will moderate each post. The system can be configured so that we can pre approve certain users to be given instant posting rights. There are also options to share these comments on social networks. And so hopefully we'll get this system running in the next few weeks as I think it will be of great benefit to the site and our visitors.
I'm hoping that visitors will add any additional information they might have on the page they are reading and even correct information that is there. so over time this could provide an extra level of information for us all.
I might add that our efforts to get this working meant I couldn't publish to the site for a couple of days so a bit lighter on contents than usual this week.
-----
Community upgrades have yet to be implemented. I'm not quite sure what Steve is doing on this as he said he had everything downloaded ready to go but when I spoke to him yesterday he said he was downloading all the updates. So as you can imagine I'm a bit puzxled but hopefully he'll get to this in the next week.
And speaking of the community I have added a "Scottish Independence" forum where I plan to add some posts giving more information on progress towards the Independence referdeum. I also took the time to remove some forums that were not being used and also merged some forums. Like I removed the Sport Group and merged some of the posts in it to a Sport forum in the Lifestyle Group.
I will be doing some more work on the Lifestyle Group as there are other forums in there not really seeing any use so will remove them.
And so with the soon to be implemented upgrade, updates, new additions and general maintenance this should tighten up the system and hopefully make it more useful.
STOP PRESS: As I was just completing the newsletter Steve phoned to say he now has everything he needs to go forward with the upgrades, etc. and hopes to get started later tonight and will be working on the system over the next three days and so over the weekend.
ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks issue has been Compiled by Gary Knox and a chatty one it is with a wide range of topics.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language
----------------------------------------------
We've added more to this dictionary...
Scottish Language Letter M
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eson/index.htm
Scottish Poets in America
-------------------------
With Biographical and Critical Notices by John D, Ross (1889)
Now added...
Massie, Dr. John
This is a new entry for this week and can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet.../chapter13.htm
The other entries can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...rica/index.htm
Chronicles of Gretna Green
--------------------------
By Peter Orlando Hutchinson (1844)
We have now completed this book by adding...
Chapter XIX.
Story of an Elopement from Bath to Gretna
Chapter XX.
Recapitulation of the subject
Chapter XXI.
Advice to Young Ladies
You can read these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...etna/index.htm
Life Jottings of an Old Edinburgh Citizen
-----------------------------------------
By Sir J. H. A. MacDonald P.C., K.C.B., Lord Justice-Clerk.
Added this week...
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bar examinations—Public examination—Sham thesis—Sham ballot—The wig—Lord Colonsay's Highland accent—Lord Deas' Lowland accent— The Speculative Society—Honorary members—Alexander Asher
Chapter Twenty-Four
My first fee—Waiting time for practice- -Attractions of Justiciary and jury Courts—Cross-examination often a pitfall—Walking the Parliament House — Advice to young advocate — Daily study to avoid mental atrophy—Lord Jeffrey to his brother (note, p. 308)—Experience of men— Junes and judges and witnesses—Strain of criminal cases—Strange experiences—Capital cases—Book on Criminal Law
Chapter Twenty-Five
Circuit Courts—Advocates attending—The old complicated indictments — Ceremonial Circuits—Lord Cockburri's view—Shamstate—Circuit dinners —An anachronism—Delay of trials—Iess of this now—Diminution of cases at Circuit—The Bar room—No professional jealousy--Patience needed--Instances of delay in success
These chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ings/index.htm
James Ballantine
----------------
We continue our book "Gaberlunzies Wallet" and now have up Chapter 11 which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nine/index.htm
Calendar Of Documents Relating to Scotland
------------------------------------------
By Joseph Bain
Our thanks to John Henderson for compiling this for us. This week we've added...
Volume 3
1330 to 1339
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...bain/index.htm
Northern Notes and Queries
--------------------------
Edited by Rev. R. W. Cornelious Hallen (1886)
We now have up the next Issue of this publication which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld
---------------------------------------
And in Blair of Atholl (1823)
Added this week...
Killicrankie to Blair
Home Grounds of Blair
Outer Grounds of Blair - Tilt Walks - Fender
In Killicrankie to Blair the account starts...
The road has now entered the celebrated pass of Kilicrankie; a spot assuredly not more celebrated than it deserves, though better known, perhaps, tor its military and historical fame, than for its wild magnificence. The change of scenery is here so complete as to re-excite our attention, which the fifteen preceding miles might have dulled. it is such as nearly to obliterate all that has past. For nearly a mile, the hills seem to close, as if denying all further access to the Highlands beyond. Rising steep and sudden on both sides, they meet below in a deep chasm, through which the river seems to struggle for a passage, among rocks and under precipices, and beneath the overshadowing foliage of the woods that hang feathering over it, giving occasional glimpses of the water as it runs, now silent and dark, and now boiling and foaming, along. Above the road, and on the right band, while the greet, fact of the mountain sweeps towards the sky, it is diversified with projecting rocks and scattered birches of ancient growth; formed below into continuous masses of wood, or into wild and irregular groups, and, above, separating dispersely, till, as the lofty acclivity recedes from the eye, a thin line of trees hanging over the mountain stream, or half concealed in the deep ravine, gradually vanishes; some solitary birch, with its thin foliage and light benditie tiwigs, still appearing, like a centinel, perched on its rook, or lightly projected on the sky, as if the forest still lingered, unwilling to leave its native hill.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter10.htm
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...keld/index.htm
Songs of Robert Burns
---------------------
We added "Love: Humorous" to this book and have also added 18 songs toward the latter half of this page. We've provided a scan of each song with the sheet music and also provided a link so you can listen to the song being sung. Our thanks to John Henderson for providing there for us.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/songs/index.htm
Clan Martin
-----------
Got in a historical update on the clan which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/martin2.html
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
-----------------------------
We now have the February 2012 issue available at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
And I have been following Beth's long attempts at finding a new home so am delighed to include here "Letter from your Editor" in which she finds that new home...
We have looked for “the perfect” house for about five years. At first we thought we could build - and spent quite awhile working on our dream house plans. That turned out not to be practical for us, so we started looking at houses and learning about renovations and to overlook small “boo-boos” in a house and how we could fix what was not perfect for us..
Our house hunt was hard and long. You see, we needed something large - close to 4000 sq. feet - with a bit of land - at least five acres - for my horses, Tom’s mule and a garden, chickens, etc. The house had to be large enough for two offices, a library, a formal dining room, big porches and room for our friends to come and visit.
There are many houses that fit all of these rquirements. These houses are always easy to find. However, houses which are large, with land, ususally sell for LOTS of money. We wanted to pay cash for the house...which meant a very real budget.
We discovered that we have a rare talent. If you have a piece of real estate or a house for sale and nobody has shown the slightest bit of interest in it for years...just let Tom and Beth come and fall in love with it and someone will write a contract either that afternoon or early the next morning. This has happened to us over and over and over again.
I reckon we’ve loved maybe six houses in five years - the last one was a beautiful log home that sold to someone else the Friday before Tom’s land sold on Saturday. We had been so sure that was THE ONE. That stung! We had always said to each other, “When the time is right, the best house of all for us will show up.”
Two days after the land was under contract, Tom found a listing on the Internet that showed only four photos and did not have near the information we needed. This listing left out things like the square footage of the house and the size of the proplerty that went with it. It did have one picture of a curving stone wall that intrigued both of us. We sort of passed over this listing because of the lack of information and photos. I’ll bet we had looked at ten thousand houses, all over the country, on the Internet and had passed over all of them.
That night, I kept thinking about that curved stone wall. “Maybe if I look for other listings, I might find a better one that will tell us everything we need, “ I thought. The next morning, I looked for more listings of this house on the Internet. I found one that was on YouTube. This one was a three and a half minute video of the house. Before it was done, I was hollering for Tom to come see....I woke him up and was hollering so that he thought I had been attacked by an alligator or maybe a lion or something huge and hairy like a Big Foot with big teeth. While he was getting up and getting to me to rescue me from whatever evidentally had me by the throat, I was breaking land speed records typing an email to our long suffering real estate agent - hollering to Tom all the while. I wrote to Dick: “This is the house. We knew it would show up. Please do whatever you need to do to buy it before someone else gets it! We don’t
have to see it in person, just buy it. QUICK.”
In about 2 minutes, Dick, our realtor, was on the phone telling us he was out the door to go see the house and that he would arrange for us to go the next morning. He did - and loved it. We did - and loved
it. He wrote an offer on that house that very day. The right house had come along at the right time, just like we knew it would! That was maybe two months ago and the negotiations turned into stress, stress, stress for us. I told Dick at one point that I was curled in the fetal position in Tom’s closet gnawing on the tails of all of Tom’s Hawiian shirt collection. (I truly wanted to do that - but did not have time.) Dick persevered and the closing on our house is set for February 15. What a wonderful Valentine’s Day present!
It will take us awhile to move. We have to modify a bathroom for Tom so that he has a roll-in shower. We have to have a lift to get sweet Tom from first to second floor and second to first floor. We have to rip out carpet in the Terrace Level den and master bedroom since wheelchairs and carpet do not get along. Our friend and contractor, Rocky, will see to all this.
Rocky and Dick have been with us since the beginning of this and have become real friends along the way. Most of the large bits for the house will be delivered since we are “starting over” from pretty much scratch. However, both Tom and me and Tom’s late mother collected books forever. The upstairs of Tom’s house is filled to the brim with boxes of books and china and all manner of the acoutrements of my life...downstairs is likewise stuffed with things that Tom has accumulated along the way...and that have meaning to him. Plus five cats. Plus two horses.
What a gloriously happy time for all of us, including the four-legged members of our family! When we are moved in and have all the information like phone numbers, we’ll send our Christmas card list our new address and everything else, including a few photos of the house and an invitation to come and visit.
Long ago, Tom named our new house - long before we knew what or where it was to be. It is “Mo Leannan” which is Gaelic for “My Beloved.” (Thanks to Donald Macdonald for the translation!) There will be a brass plaque by the gate that will say, “Mo Leannan - Tom and Beth Freeman.” You see, Colin Grant-Adams sang a song at our Handfasting back in 2007 that included the words, “I will build my love a castle.” This house is as close as we could get.
Ya’ll come see us!
James Maxwell
-------------
James Clerk Maxwell, who was born at no. 14 India Street, Edinburgh, is generally regarded as one of the greatest physicists the world has ever seen. We've added a pdf book about him at the foot of this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...well_james.htm
Henderson, Daniel Mclntyre
--------------------------
We found a copy of his book of poems that was mentioned in the article we put up about him. You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet.../chapter05.htm
And finally...
The Sheik & the Scotsman
An Arab Sheik was admitted to St Vincents Hospital for heart surgery, but prior to the surgery,the doctors needed to store his blood in case the need arose.
As the gentleman had a rare type of blood,it couldn't be found locally, so, the call went out to all the states.
Finally a Scot was located who had a similar blood type. The Scot willingly donated his blood for the Arab.
After the surgery, the Arab sent the Scotsman as appreciation for giving his blood, a new BMW, diamonds & US dollars.
A couple of days later, once again, the Arab had to go through a corrective surgery.
His doctor telephoned the Scotsman who was more than happy to donate his blood again.
After the second surgery, the Arab sent the Scotsman a thank-you card & a jar of candies.
The Scotsman was shocked that the Arab this time did not reciprocate his kind gesture as he had anticipated.
He phoned the Arab & asked him: "I thought you would be generous again, that you would give me a BMW, diamonds & money... But you only gave me a thank-you card & a jar of candies".
To this the Arab replied: "Aye, but I now have Scottish blood in my veins".
And that's all for now and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair