the pleasures of the town

central edinburgh looking east

and west

wild life in the New Town

meanwhile back at the ranch, they think its easter

Sky Ropes

talking of Stone age boulders, here is a story from Australia:
"Yhi, the sun, after many lovers, tried to ensnare Bahloo, the moon; but he would have none of her, and so she chases him across the sky, telling the spirits who stand round the sky holding it up, that if they let him escape past them to earth, she will throw down the spirit who sits in the sky holding the ends of the Kurrajong ropes which they guard at the other end, and if that spirit falls the earth will be hurled down into everlasting darkness."
And here is one I've just encountered, from the Cherokees of North America:
"The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this."
and here is one from Egypt:
'The Great God lives, fixed in the middle of the sky upon his support. The guide ropes are adjusted for that great one, the Dweller in the Sky'
and here are two pictures as illustration:

Mayan Ritual Table with sky ropes, 'Maya Cosmology'

Assyrian depiction of Shamash the 'Sun-God' with wheel of creation held up by ropes.

Where (and when) did this idea originate?

Stone Age Boulders

Spent most of yesterday at the extraordinary sacred-texts.com site I think the internet would be worth it just for this site alone. You can read just about any ancient or modern sacred text you can think of. I downloaded the Mahabharata in seconds, and then spent a while reading The orphic Hymns (Eng/Greek parallel texts). This is what Saturdays and computers are for.

I then spent a long while reading stories collected in the 19th century from Native Americans of California, which resulted in my having to add another example to my collection of 'Stone Age Boulders', those paleolithic ideas that get stuck in the glaciers of mythology and come down to us from the earliest times. They can be identified because they are ideas that are most unlikely to have spontaneoulsy appeared in all corners of the world; they must surely have a common, presumably ancient, origin.
The one I was reading yesterday concerns the destruction of the world by fire; the trully unlikely part of this story is that the fire is always started by twins, in this case 'Shooting Star' and his brother 'Fire Drill'. James Frazer (who wrote several other works as well as the 12 volumes of The Golden Bough) in his 'Myths of the Origin of Fire' tells a version of this story from Tasmania which makes it clear that these twins, 'The fire Sticks', are the two bright stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, and the Aztecs agreed. This, it seems is no ordinary Fire.

Walking the other way

Turned right instead of left today and found that someone had been very busy since I went that way last.

A new bridge over the Tyne

A new pond (I think it's a pond, not a flood)



and just because there are daffodils doesn't mean we have no more snowdrops

back on dry land

I've been working with the Rev. Gordon Strachan on his new book 'The Return of Merlin'. Not really quite my scene but he asked me to prepare some star charts for the periods he was concerned with. He proposes that 'Merlin' first appeared (Geoffrey of Monouth's History, 1136AD) to coincide with the conjunction of Neptune and Uranus that occured at the same time. He also suggested that the previous conjunstion of N and U in 452AD marked the appearance of Excalibur (what? I hear you ask). The weird thing was that I was able to show that at the same time that his conjunction occured (along with the Sun, at the spring equinox) not only was there a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter (the so-called Grand Conjunction that defines the Ages of the world) but that this conjunction occured to align with the rising of the star Arcturus, known as King Arthur's star. This was news to Gordon and got him quite excited.

It's a strange life in the north. here are some daffodils.

love boat revisited

give it a bit of a tweak on the bowline and why not?starboard side

Love Boat Dancing

A wonderful night last night at the Bongo Club, swing dancing to the Love Boat Big Band. Wish I could show you the video i took, but even by my standards its pretty poor quality. The night also invovled polkaing in 7/4 (try it) to the Orkestra del Sol. You could visit their web site but at the moment all it says is:

'Balkan tunes, Carnival Classics, Gypsy Polkas, Calypsos and Waltzes
From the Baltic wastes of Edinburgh, this 11-piece carnival band
bring you an uplifting array of sounds from around the world.
Sometimes lilting, often raucous, this mildly eccentric blend of brass and beats is bound to please.'

and so it did, so it did.

Disabling the fearwall

Thankyou Microsoft for protecting me against unknown dangers; pity it placed restrictions on my civil liberties, but what can you do? (I don't remember choosing to impose these restrictions.) Anyway, I've broken free - the fearwall has been breached.
BTW the image of a budding potential posted (finally) on Firday, is of The Lime Tree.

The inscription says this is the stone in which the Scottish standard was last pitched for the muster of the Scottish army on the borough-muir before the battle of Flodden, 1513. The area (Morningside) is now one of the smartest parts of Edinburgh.
here's the old tune of the Flowers of the Forest, thought to have been written to mourn the passing of the Scottish aristocracy during that battle. (Not to be confused with the words written to a different tune in the 18th century)

Missing

Sorry about yesterday's missing images. I cant ftp to my site at the moment; no idea why. Don't even know if this wil post.

Ma Nature's (getting) Lyrical

The miracle is that I mastered the manual focus.
Unfortunately, I failed to photograph the buzzard as it flew past.

Plenty of Nothing

Late morning at Yellowcraig beach. One of the places we keep our wealth.


heading east


ok it's not a brilliant photo, but I never photographed a curlew before

oystercatchers. I always wanted a soft toy one that made the right noise when you squeezed it.

It was a tiny, (25mm) still-alive starfish, but even John M with his fancy camera couldnt do it justice. It's back in the sea now.

Sky (the dog)

heading west

heading home (well, to The Castle for lunch actually)

Thank'ee ma'm

We planted tulips this afternoon. They were a christmas gift from Lady Dorothy Ogilvy to all her tenants. She likes them, you see (tulips, not tenants)

Then an hour in the garden helped by a friend

All this and another walk by the sea tomorrow!

changing courses

a misty morning

(But today's lime tree is an afternoon one, with a little sunshine, briefly) I did, I did hear a woodpecker. They get earlier every year.


Spent a good deal of time today receiving email posts to music forums saying what a womderful thing my new book of Lowland Bagpipe Music is. And do you know, they're right.

But, change of course; I was wondering what was coming, and now I think I've a clue. I've been thinking vaguely recently about getting The Architecture of the Spirit published on lucy.com (print on demand). Today I visited Graham Hancock's site and discovered that he now publishes articles from contributors. This sent me off writing one for him about 'The Beginning of Time' and that led to me resolving that the publication plan will go ahead. All I need to do now is generate an index ..... you can pre-order a copy by posting a comment!

None of this makes up for the fiddle and sousaphone song, I know, but you can't post the picture as if it was possible without proving that it's not. Yet.

remaindered already

Beware, be very ware, of the Remaindered Blues.
It's very, very silly. But it had to be done.

the frost is all over

well, almost. It's left a few odd things behind:

a snake in the ice (didn't notice he was there until I downloaded it from the
camera)

And I'm sure I heard a woodpecker, just once, rather tentative. Seems unlikely,
but what else makes that sound?
What an odd time this is. I really must do some work soon.
Oh, by the way, sounds may soon appear to accompany my profile pic. You have been warned.

February grey

and frosted still;

cold pheasant

once were badgers

and in case you can't see the keystone:

1753

cold fern

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

sorry about the sousaphones, I just don't know what came over me.