Tag Archives: King Charles III

Dynamic Earth

3 November 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

The title picture is of Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh with the Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat in the background. Obviously you want to know the age of Arthur’s Seat, everyone does, don’t they? It’s a 346 million year old extinct volcano, give or take a couple of million. Back then, fire and lava would have been spewing everywhere! But,of course, that all happened when Scotland was much closer to the equator than it is today … obviously! Another old Celtic explanation is that a huge dragon used to terrorise the city until one day it ate too much, lay down to sleep and turned into the Arthur’s Seat. Today, looking up at the craggy hill, for some reason the dragon explanation seems much more believable.

Awkward questions

The only reason we are able to furnish you with these little nuggets is because we’re here with a couple of granddaughters at the Dynamic Earth Science Centre and Planetarium. It tells the epic story of how planet earth began. The girls are always asking awkward questions so this seemed like the place to get some answers.

You know how they say that the best place to start is at the beginning. Well. here you can enter a Time Machine which takes you all the way back to the Big Bang. The visual and sound effects are amazing. At one point you have to hang on to railings as the ground violently shifts and rumbles beneath your feet and volcanoes explode all around. Luckily, rather than millions of years, it only takes about 90 minutes to walk all the interactive experiences from the Big Bang back to the present day. However, you do emerge from the Time Machine with more than a touch of information overload.

Facts and figures

Our 9 and 11 year old girls are fascinated by tectonic plates and how mountains and valleys are formed so this was ideal for them. Did you know that continents move 2cm every year? Did you know that 200,000 people are born ever day or that 2 people die every second? Well, if you didn’t, you do now!

These days, for Pat and I, information overload kicks in pretty early. What a relief then to find that there was no thinking or decisions required at the cafe. Cheese scones, take them or leave them! We took them along with a bowl of lentil soup. The girls had a kiddies goodie bag which they emptied in double quick time.. The soup/cheese scone combo was surprisingly good and much easier digested than some of the rather mind boggling facts and figures. It was never going to be a topscone but enjoyable nevertheless.

Differentiation

Our 11 year old is fascinated by Time Machines. When we suggested that she just wanted to go back to the beginning of time, we were emphatically corrected. “No. I just want to go back 70,000 years!” Okay, why just 70,000 years?. “Because that’s when human’s cognitive abilities developed so that they could differentiate themselves from other animals“. she explained in her serious voice. A slow “okaaay” was our only response. These girls are a constant source of surprise and joy.

Cognitive development

Lola holding up the world — Maybe she can save the world?

However, given that we have presumably been developing our cognitive skills over 70,000 years it makes the slanging match that characterises the American Presidential elections somewhat puzzling. You’d think, after all that time, that selecting the most powerful person on earth would be a tad more sophisticated.

But we should know by now that people are fickle. Australians, for example. Recently Lidia Thorpe protested during King Charles’s visit to Australia with “You are not my King“. Charlie’s official title is “King Charles the Third, by the Grace of God King of Australia and His other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth”. The question is why do people, particularly straight thinking Australians, put up with this sort of nonsense? Even the King himself, a thoroughly decent chap, looked embarrassed being reminded of Britain’s genocidal land grabbing tendencies. Privately, we suspect he would have been on Lidia’s side.

Now they are discussing dropping the word “Empire” from the King’s honours list. Could this be yet another attempt to sanitise Britain’s history. Perish the thought!

External view of Dynamic Earth — Starting to get dark as we left Dynamic Earth

Fungi?

The only slight disappointment to our day was the Planetarium visit. We had always assumed that Planetariums only did things about planets. On this occasion it was all about fungi! Interesting enough but not what we had expected. In terms of learning, we did learn not to make assumptions! An very enjoyable day of time travel for everyone concerned.

EH8 8AS tel: 0131 550 7800 Dynamic Earth

///clots.lived.margin

Scones, Top

Kinloch Lodge

8 November 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

After leaving Ballachulish we ventured on towards the Isle of Skye. It was nice to see snow on the tops of some of the hills, our first snows of the year. However, it never occurred to us that in another half hour the road would be white and we would be driving through a blizzard. Okay, the road at this point was 1300 feet above sea level and as soon as we dropped some height it was fine again. Nevertheless, snow was unexpected and quite exciting.

Stokers from down under

We had aimed to arrive at our destination, Kinloch Lodge, in early afternoon because they had offered tea and scones on arrival. It had to be early afternoon so that we had an appetite for dinner in the evening. These are the sort of decisions we are forced to make these days! True to their word, before we had even seen our room, we were ushered into one of the drawing rooms and sat in front of a lovely log fire.

Originally built in 1676 as a farmhouse, all the public rooms have log fires expertly managed by the staff. Amazingly, quite a few of the staff hailed from the Gold Coast of Australia. Not quite sure how they found their way here but they all seemed to be thoroughly enjoying their time on Skye.

One of our daughters was here at Kinloch with her family a couple of years ago and has heaped praise on it ever since. We were beginning to see why!

The scones arrived beautifully presented complete with sparkling white linen napkins. Just as you might expect in a place like this. And just as you might expect they were topscones. Perfect size, lovely and warm and complete with lots of jam and cream. What was not to like? In our younger days on Skye we normally camped and have experienced everything Skye weather could throw at us. Now, many years later it was great to be back in such comfortable surroundings. We’re getting soft!

View from Kinloch Lodge — From Kinloch over Loch na Dal and the Sound of Sleat towards the hills of Knoydart

Clans

My lineage makes me feel right at home here. My middle name is MacDonald and my mother’s name was McKinnon, both good Skye names. Isabella MacDonald, daughter of Godfrey Macdonald, the 35^th High Chief of his clan runs Kinloch today, She can trace her family back to the 9th century. When her her parents set up Kinloch in 1972 their ambition was to create a place that had everything they could possibly want in a hotel: comfy beds, endless hot water, warm and attentive service and, above all, delicious food. Mission accomplished we would say.

Dining room of Kinloch Lodge dining room — Lots of MacDonald family portraits hanging in the dining room

To top off clan connections Isabella is very ably assisted by the delightful Rachel McKinnon. My brother once visited a graveyard on the Waternish peninsula on Skye to try and shed more light on our mother’s side of the family. All for nothing, however, lots of headstones but almost all were McKinnon.

The MacDonald boys Sir James Macdonald 1741–66 and Sir Alexander Macdonald 1744/45–95 wearing four different tartans when wearing tartan was forbidden. Apparently the MacDonalds were above any law imposed by the English Crown! Picture by William Mosman

Wasn’t it obvious?

At the ongoing COVID enquiry Simon Case, Head of the Civil Service was giving evidence. He said of Boris Johnson’s government that he had “never seen a bunch of people less well-equipped to run a country“. Surely we all knew that?

Yesterday saw the state opening of Parliament. Anyone tuning in from abroad must have thought they had accidentally hit a Disney channel. That degree of pomp looks totally ridiculous and inappropriate for a country heading towards recession. The spectacle of the King in fancy dress reading out statements even he doesn’t believe in doesn’t help either. Mind you, who are we to criticise anyone? Sitting here sipping whisky in front of the fire in the bar after a superb dinner.

Internal view of Kinloch Lodge bar — The bar

IV43 8QY tel: 01471 833333 Kinloch Lodge

///smudges.altering.spud

Ordinary, Scones

Nosh

21 September 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

It’s a sure sign that summer is coming to an end. Could it be the lower temperatures, the leaves turning, or the days shortening? Well yes, but it’s more that we have started going to the movies after breakfast. We enjoy it. It supports our local picture palace and it feels slightly sinful when you come out and it’s only lunchtime. It also allows us to explore the town of Bo’ness and find places like Nosh, the scene for today’s scone.

Internal view of the Hiipodrome cinema — Inside the Hippodrome

We haven’t been here at the Hippodrome, Scotland’s oldest cinema ,since February when we saw ‘Till’, an excellent movie. This time it was ‘The Innocent‘ a French romcom heist caper about stealing a truck load of caviar. Enjoyable enough although subtitles can be hard work when they go rapidly … why do the French speak so quickly?

In some ways watching a French film in Bo’ness is kind of appropriate. Bo’ness was once one of Scotland’s largest ports and would have traded the black stuff (coal not caviar) with France for many centuries. Scotland was France’s oldest ally since the two countries formed the Auld Alliance in 1295 in an attempt to control England’s many invasions. Trade between the two circumvented England and ports like Bo’ness and Leith thrived. It may also explain why Scotland has always thought of itself as much more European than England.

After the film we ended up here in Nosh, one of the few cafés we haven’t visited in the town. It’s located in a building built in 1750 as a tollbooth.

Overdo plaque at Nosh in Bo'ness — Built in 1750 but who were ‘RB’ and ‘EB’?

It’s more of a takeaway place for sandwiches and the like but it does have a few tables.

On the counter, under a glass dome, were two scones individually wrapped in cling film.

We never think this is a good idea. Scones need to breathe after all and sometimes it means that they might not be entirely fresh. Anyway, we ordered one to share as well as a some coffees. Our scone turned out to be not at all bad but a long way off a topscone.

Obedience

The Prime Minister has single handedly managed to upset almost everyone by announcing that he is rolling back on his commitment to green policies. The date for net zero will now be 2035 instead of 2030. Goodness knows what it will be by the time we reach 2030? Right or wrong it does demonstrate this Tory government’s unswerving dedication to screwing things up. It wouldn’t be so serious if there was a better option waiting in the wings, but there isn’t! The only thing the Labour Party, “the opposition” seems to do is support the Tories. Voters are caught between a rock and a hard place. In Scotland, after one invasion too many by England, we have no say and just do what we are told!

A watercolour of Nosh in Bo'ness — A watercolour of Nosh’s building

Meanwhile King Charles and Queen Camilla are in France trying to thaw out relationships after the disaster of Brexit. Good luck with that!

EH51 0EA tel: 01506 828151 Nosh FB

///taps.dude.something

Scones

Pleased To Meet You

20 April 2023 billpaterson1@me.com 9 Comments

Today we are super pleased to be in Pleased To Meet You. No idea why it has that name but it’s a cafe/restaurant in Morpeth, Northumberland. It’s our first visit to the town though we’ve actually been here many times before but that was just passing through on the train going to London. We’ve never got off the train here. The Sunday Times says it is one of the best places to live in the UK so we thought we should investigate. Morpeth was our destination for today.

Department stores

Turns out the Sunday Times may well be right. We were very pleasantly surprised. The town dates back to the 12th century and has managed to retain its traditional market-town charm combined with some classy streets. It even boasts a couple of department stores, a thing of the past in our home town. The Sanderson Arcade even has an M&S store … Pat was impressed and maybe a little jealous.

Aberdeen Angus bull sculpture, Morpeth — This magnificent actual size beast is an Aberdeen Angus bull. It commorates times when they would be brought from Scotland to be sold in Morpeth.

Negotiating with Westminster

In the local park there is a statue to suffragette, Emily Davison. She was quite a lady: arrested nine times; force fed when she went on hunger strike; locked herself in a prison cell only to be flooded out by a hosepipe wielding magistrate; attacked a church minister she mistook for Lloyd George. She died after throwing herself in front of the King’s horse in the 1913 Derby. All this just to get a vote. She won eventually but her story does indicate what it still takes to negotiate with the turgid Westminster governments to this day.

Anyway after some delightful sunny hours wandering the sights of Morpeth it was scone time. There were numerous options but we had had a recommendation for Pleased To Meet You. It’s in a historic 17th century building which used to be the Queens Head Hotel. Pleased To Meet You, or PTMY, has adapted it and stripped it back to its original structure. It is vast. Take a ball of string if you want to find your way back from the toilets.

Galloping girls

We managed to get a little table at a window so we could see what was happening outside on the street. It’s great to people watch when you are in a new place. At one point, through all the traffic, a young girl galloped past at high speed on a horse smoking a cigarette. Wow, no elegant trotting in this neck of the woods, it’s a full blown gallop or nothing! Nobody batted an eyelid so presumably it’s an everyday occurrence. By the way, it was the girl smoking the cigarette, not the horse!

Eventually we were distracted by the arrival of our fruit scone. We could have opted for one of their fully loaded scones which actually looked quite good but we decided to be purists and do it for ourselves.

It was wonderfully warm and had a super crunchy exterior and a soft interior with lots of lovely fruit. Plentiful jam and cream as well as delicious coffee and friendly service. What was not to like? Nothing! An easy topscone. We liked everything about PTMY, it seemed to have everything. The staff must walk miles each day but they were unstintingly helpful and friendly.

Blow me down

When we left we walked a short way down the street and came on the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum … what?

Painting of French bagpipes — President of the Provence Parliament playing the musette … bit overdressed but looks like a lovely chap

What’s that doing here in the North of England? Although normally associated with Scotland there are lots of different kinds af bagpipe and Northumberland has it’s very own pipes. Totally different from the Scottish variety which at one time were outlawed by the English as a weapon of war. Just being found in possession of bagpipes was a penal offence. The Northumberland pipes, like the Irish pipes have a much softer sound and as far as we know have never been outlawed. The museum was very well set up and definitely worth a visit even if you have no particular interest in bagpipes.

Self raising

Most readers will have heard of Be-Ro self raising flour. But did you know that the inventor, Thomas Bell, lived and worked in Morpeth. He called his invention Bell’s Royal flour, or Be-Ro for short. The things you learn on allaboutthescones.com!

Competitions

When we travelled down to Morpeth we met a chap who joined us at Berwick-on-Tweed. He was super excited to be going to Leeds to support his team playing against Liverpool. The score line ended up Leeds 1 Liverpool 6. Oh dear, hope he is okay! It can’t be any worse than the coverage we are being subjected to of all things Monarchy. First we have to watch Charles and his floozie being fitted with new hats followed, a few days later, by the Eurovision Song Contest. Impossible to decide which is the most surreal and ridiculous.

Black Bull Pub, Morpeth — For a moment in Morpeth we weren’t sure where we were … then we were! It was the Black Bull!

Morpeth gave us a great day out and it looked like there were plenty more scones to be explored so, who knows, we might be back!

NE61 1NB tel: 01670 333970 PTMY

///casually.hockey.subsystem

Ordinary, Scones

Cafe Tiki

24 October 2022 billpaterson1@me.com 6 Comments

You know how it is … you drive past a place on a regular basis and every time you do you think “I wonder what that place does?” but you never actually make the effort to find out. That’s how it was with this place, Forth Valley Sensory Centre. Barely half a mile from where we live yet it was a complete mystery. The name, of course, kind of suggests help for those with impaired senses but it doesn’t give that much away. Today we decided to find out what it was all about.From the main road you don’t see that much of it but it’s actually quite big and very modern. And to top off our surprises, it has a cafe, Cafe Tiki … excellent!

Wellbeing

The Centre provides services for those who are deaf or hard of hearing as well as those who are blind or partially sighted. It also seems to provide services across a huge area including Clackmannanshire and Stirling. It has over 30 groups, classes and activities to improve the wellbeing of folks with compromised sensory conditions. They’ve even got a Sensory Garden but the weather today meant it wasn’t a day for exploring that. Technically there is nothing wrong with our senses. We know that many of you might disagree with that but we did wonder, in these circumstances, what sort of reception we would get. No problem, we were welcomed with open arms. Under interrogation though we did confess to an excessive-fondness for scones. And that’s when they directed us their scone treatment centre … Cafe Tiki.

It was mid afternoon and it was about to close so we had the whole place to ourselves. We were looked after by a very friendly lady (she was from Glasgow so, of course, she was friendly) who informed us that there was only one single scone left. “That’ll do” we said “we’ll share it“. She disappeared behind a screen and before you could say Jack Flash she was back with the scone. It was already divided into two and loaded with jam and cream … argh! Not to worry, the intention was good. And it wasn’t as if she could give us another one.

Cooking blind

We sat at a table adjacent to the counter and our lady proceeded to chat to us the whole time we were there. She informed us that one of their chefs is deaf and completely blind. Can’t really imagine that! We were quite enjoying our scone but she said that someone else baked them. This was not a topscone by quite a way but we really enjoyed being here and finding out about all these valuable services.

During the course of our cafe chat we did at least learn how to ask for the essential accoutriments for a scone in sign language.

Prime Ministers in record numbers

Perhaps, since this is a sensory centre we should have mentioned our rather painful sensitivity to recent political news. Could they desensitise us? Too late, the news has just come in that Rishi Sunak is to be the next British PM. There have been 58 British Prime Ministers … three of them have been in the last seven weeks. At this rate we might even reach 100 by the 2024 General Election.

Of course, Rishi is merely leader of the Conservative Party at the moment. In true British obfuscatory style, there’s only one man in Britain that can appoint a new PM. That’s King Charles III and Sunak will be his first. In her 70 years on the throne the Queen had 15 Prime Ministers but, unbelievably, the way things are going, Charles could beat that record. Unless Keir Starmer can nobble the King, or Liz refuses to come out of the cupboard under No10’s stairs, Rishi should be PM by tomorrow. He will be the 10th conservative PM in a row that Scotland hasn’t voted for… isn’t that great!

Perhaps the value of the Sensory Centre is best summed up by one of the volunteers “it gets me out of the house and allows the person that I am picking up to get out as well. When they turn around to me and say they’ve had a great day, it makes my day knowing I have helped”.

FK1 4DD tel: 01324 590888 Sensory Centre

///sofa.move.tweezers

Scones, history and a dollop of politics