WEEK 76 CORONAVIRUS: CASES RISING - WE'RE LEARN ING TO LIVE WITH IT

Another week, another rise in cases.  It is expected and we learn to live with it... we carry on, as they say.

In our Sunday night Quiz with the 3 generations of the family I stumbled across the idea of  widening the Quiz Session by introducing the topic of 'Childhood Memories'.  My idea is to see if the children will tell us about something they remember from when they were younger.

Iain and I thought we would start things off with a memory of our own.

 * * * * *  Barbara's childhood memory * * * * * 

I recall standing on the platform of the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) Station in Salmon Arm watching the train coming into the station.  It did not stop but  travelled very slowly.  As it approached the station platform the driver of the train leaned out of the window and put his hooked arm through the big hoop that the Station Master was holding up for him to grab as the train slowly passed by.

Iain explained to us that this is a 'key' being handed over as part of a signal safety practice. Well, well... I never knew that!

While I am here.... some background images to give the setting.  Salmon Arm in British Columbia, Canada, is a small town, and like many small towns, it grew up along the CPR railway.

This photo is exactly like the CPR station as I remember it and the age of the train too... late 1940s or early 1950s.  (This photo is, however, Guelph Ontario.)  The train station is still there but has long since closed.

I took this photo of the deserted station in Salmon Arm in November 5, 2007.  I talk about it, and posted more photos, here.

Salmon Arm is on the Shuswap Lake in B.C. The train wound its way along the right hand shore as seen in the photo above.  The town and train station located centrally and opposite the town wharf are just out of the photo on the lower right.

This photo is the wrong lake (too tuquoise!)  but the right train winding its way along an unknown Canadian lake's edge.

* * * * *  Iain's childhood memory * * * * * 

This is Iain as a Cub in the 6th Clydebank Boy Scouts. “I had agreed to do an important job. When I heard what I had to do, I was devastated. Giving flowers to women was not something that a young boy should be doing! That was for girls!

I put a brave face on it and squared up for the ordeal. It turned out to be much less harrowing than I expected!”

WEEK 75 CORONAVIRUS: LIFE GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Indy is now 10 years old.  This recent photo shows him on his first day of school. Luna is Melanie's dog who replaces Koda who died recently.

Our social life is starting to return to its former days of occasion dinner parties, coffee with friends and evening events.  To that end we have been out 5 days in a row: dinner with Maggie and Brian, and Kate and Peter who are all well; coffee with Ken, Ken and Nancy at the Sports Centre locally and coffee with John and Margaret in Drymen; a fiddle concert in the Milngavie St Andrews Church and dinner over at CVD with the gang on Sunday 5 day of 5 lovely occasions. (Yes, we still are encouraged to wear masks and tables inside and out are socially distanced. 

There areas 'hot-spots' in Scotland with high rates of infection.  One is Oban. A chap was telling me how he got 'pinged' to say he had been in contact with someone at an event where they were all watching a live screening of a rugby game in the lounge of rugby club.  Big  outbreak there; his friend contracted covid (he didn't, as it turned out) but the consequences are always tough e.g. the friend was quite ill and he himself had to have a planned get-together cancelled and rescheduled.  

* * * * * * * * * * 

The children's orchestra is now starting up again. Another wonderful marker for life getting back to normal.

WEEK 74 CORONAVIRUS: A WALK ALONG THE LEVEN AT RENTON

We continue to enjoy good health and, indeed, the wonderful summer weather we have been having. For many places in the world it is not wonderful due to intense heat, e.g. southern Mediterranean especially Greece and Italy.

I had a go at putting music to a videos I made of bees in the garden but I am not managing to post it.  Patience.... in the meantime here is a recent photo taken by Mairi.

* * * * * * * * * * * * 

I was out this past week with the LitterPickers group that do various points in West Dumbartonshire communities, usually walkways along the Leven. I went along to join them as it was going to be a trip down Memory Lane.

This is the River Leven at the point where there was a quayside for boat delivering goods to the Turkey Red Dye Factory that was there 240 years ago. It  is long gone now but  the history of works is fascinating. The story is here:  

This stone on the left was near the place where there was a small bridge over a burn which opened to the above entrance for boats.  I think it is a loupin' stone. That is a stone placed at the edge of a road, entrance to a big house at the bottom of the stairs rising to the door, or at the corner of a building like, say, a pub. You stepped up on to it to mount a horse. Loupin' (louping) is to leap.

This old pub is still on the main street on Renton.  The building I worked in (Health Clinic) is still there too but is a private house. The Dalquhurn works (on the Turkey Red Factory site) are long gone. However I remember that there was a remnant warehouse for fabrics when I was there 54 years ago!  It's all houses now ...lots of them and looking quite tidy too. It was anything but in the past!

WEEK 73 CORONAVIRUS: BEE WATCH

We are now having lockdown restrictions lifted except for the wearing masks in crowded public places and on the various forms of transport. Tomorrow, August 9th is to be the final lifting of restrictions (with the exception of the above transport and large public spaces like train stations). There is now no limit of the number of people you can have in your house.

We have had 4 glorious weeks of sunshine with an occasional shower passing through... very welcome as the grass, e.g. golf courses, was getting very dry.

I have been noticing the bees are very busy and, of course, we have all been encouraged to help them in any way we depend on them for pollinating the crops.

I made a 1.3 minute video of the several aspect of bees on the Echinops bannaticus  plants (above) this week. It is my first attempt.  I did it in iMovie and notice that the file is really big. As I suspected it didn't work when I tried to post it here. The file is too big... so clearly I need to do some more work here. 

This is Ish's photo taken a few weeks ago. Flower is Eryngium ?planum Blue Hobbit? or Sea Holly.

Oh well... the answer is to go off and 'solve' a completely different problem.  Here is a picture taken today, quite by chance when I was looking for more bees, of an Imperial moth... at least that is what I reckon it is by comparing it with photos on the internet.