A small diversion for friends in lockdown

Morena Auckland. I hope the quick, decisive actions of your most capable leaders nail the Delta variant as efficiently as they moved the team of 5 million into lockdown. Your 10 cases would be a blessing here; 2,538 new infections today and a bunch of f***wits running the show. It's a completely different narrative but I'm really sorry your freedom has to be reined in for a while.

By way of a small diversion, I thought I'd share some pics from a favourite morning walk along the River Almond here in Auld Reekie - Edinburgh's nickname earned from hundreds of reekin lums (smoking chimneys) that used to smudge the city skyline on winter mornings before the 1950s smokefree zones policy. Nothing reeks much nowadays, except an occasional walker or cyclist sporting essence of weed.

This tranquil spot near 17thC Dowie's Sawmill is where my mother taught us kids to swim. The water runs deep and still beside the falls. BUT the level dropped in a drought one year to reveal the end of a large sewage pipe spewing forth onto the wall. We built immune systems strong in those days ;-)

Views along the two mile path.

 

There is a yacht club too. Devonport it ain't, but great sailing when the rain takes a break from lashing and the gales pause to take a breath. Lots of bird life here, kingfisher, crane, heron, swan, skua, gulls ... Must remember to bring binoculars.

 

The Kingdom of Fife lies across the Firth of Forth, with Cramond Island midway. Every local kid has a stranding story from crossing a causeway that's under water at half tide years ahead of mobile phones.

I love the juxtaposition of castle and oil refinery in this picture, but my camera wasn't good enough to show it well. 

The River Almond runs into the Firth of Forth at Cramond Village, settled by humans at least since the Roman occupation in 2CE. A few traces of history remain - a village pub that served punters for 300 years but sadly shows no signs of opening again; an auld kirk built on the remains of a Roman fort; a stone lion pulled from the riverbed in the 1970s. 

 

A popular story says clumsy Roman wharfies (or their unwilling servants) dropped the heavy statue during landing. I prefer to believe - without a shred of evidence - that jubilant locals heaved the last monument to their colonizers into the river as soon as they left. Think BLM and statues of slaveholders in 2020, and the long tail of history.

 

 

Nice houses in this part of town - worth roughly the same as a 3 bed home in Devonport.

 

That's all for now. Stay home, stay safe. Arohanui.

A day oot in Glesga

 A 140 day occupation in 2001 and later community buy out of the badly neglected Govanhill Baths building was a small victory in a peoples' revolution. It has since become a local legend, and a fine example of how a Community Trust can acquire and run a major assest for the benefit of the people. There is a much told 'revolutionary' tale about a melon, plucked from a crate outside a Calder St grocer, used as a missile to knock off a polis-man's helmet. The aim was perfect and although the act of agression was mild, the message was clear. Don't mess with the people. They'd had a gutsfull and were ready to stand their ground. Such is the strength of Glasgow's diverse nature. For a recent example, check this story about a hastily mustered crowd blocking a Home Office deportation in the midst of a pandemic. But to get back to the Baths, this info from their website:

Govanhill Baths Community Trust is responsible for running the baths’ wide-ranging community wellbeing activities, as well as education and training. These are aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at people from the G41/G42 postcodes. The Trust has a successful social enterprise project and leading upcycling project Rags to Riches. It also runs the groundbreaking People’s Pantry, a membership-based initiative aimed at tackling food poverty and reducing waste.

The Trust operates as a Limited Company by Guarantee, a Charitable Trust and a Preservation Trust. Nice indictment of citizen David against Goliath council.

 

Among other things, the Trust runs an annual anti-racist Govanhill International Festival. Cancelled due to Covid in 2020, the event was back up in 2021 with a full programme of walks, talks, dance, movies, live music, exhibitions and more. I went for one of the less colourful (but safer) events - a self-guided walking tour of local landmarks. First stop Samaritan House - a hospital converted to housing association flats. We need more like this A friendly local treated us to a tour of apple, plum, pear and quince laden trees in tubs, giant sunflowers, chillis and gooseberries in veggie boxes on concrete in the community garden. Look who had this stop on her itinerary too, and wore her crown jewels for the occasion!

A stroll through an unseasonally straw coloured Govanhill Park led us to the folly of a Carnegie Library - fabulous stained glass windows, elaborate stonework, a diverse collection of books and some local stories.

Time was too short to take in the other 20 or so stops on the tour, so we retired to the Bungo Bar for a fine lunch before I headed back through Queens Park to Buchanan St bus station, where a soulful bronze laddie farewells his tearful lassie.

So much of this city is a work of art.