Scottish Post-boxes

The first post-boxes in the UK were introduced in 1854 in the Channel Islands thanks to the then Postmaster General, author Anthony Trollope.  They were sage green but changed in 1874 to the now famous pillar box red.   

With each change of monarch the royal cipher on the boxes changed throughout the country until the death of George VI when a problem arose.  

Queen Elizabeth is Queen Elizabeth II of England and Wales but not of Scotland.  At the time of the first Queen Elizabeth, James VI was the Scottish monarch.   

As a result the Scottish pillar boxes installed since the early 1950s have simply borne a crown and no royal cipher.

One of the lamp post-boxes on the Isle of Lewis has had its Royal Mail sign painted over and a new red crown on a silver background plate.  This is the first one of these I have seen.

At the kitchen table

It has been a very mixed week weather-wise as GB has mentioned in his blog.  As I began drafting this post it was cold and very windy.  Now it is muggy and cloudy and if one stepped outside the front door one could commit suicide by midges!  Fortunately GB keeps his windows spotless so taking photos through them is quite acceptable. 

GB and I share the kitchen table for blogging and, this weekend, watching Wimbledon and the British F1 Grand Prix.

 

When the weather is clear you can see the mainland mountains.

I am back

I’m back after a lengthy gap – the details of which I shall not bore you with. 

At the weekend, after a scary journey down from Scotland, GB came to The Wirral to pick me up and take me back North.  This is GB – brother, friend, carer, caterer, chauffeur, and host for the next few weeks.

We stayed on Sunday night at the Royal Dunkeld in Dunkeld and on the way GB found a spot from which I could photograph Stirling Castle, something I have never managed to do before.

On Monday we paused at The Blair Atholl watermill which I had never seen before.

This nearby building looks like a fulling mill.

One advantage of not being in a hurry and having an amenable chauffeur (as both GB and Partner are) is that one can turn around and take photos when you pass something attractive.  This is the old packhorse bridge at Carrbridge.

 

 

 

As we got further into The Highlands the patches of snow on the tops got larger and larger, even on South facing slopes.

This is the new ferry, MV Loch Seaforth, coming in to berth at Ullapool.  The cars were soon loaded and we were on our way across The Minch to the Outer Hebrides.

Hopefully there will be more blog posts in the near future including one on Scottish postboxes and another on some of the changes to the Island since I was last here a couple of years ago.

Invisible Illnesses

People are often kind enough to ask how I am.  The answer is usually ‘OK’ or ‘Fine’.  That is for the simple reason that if I’m not OK I am unlikely to be communicating in any form. On average I have one or two ‘Good’ Days each week, a couple of Bad Days and the rest are Liveable With….    Good, of course, is a relative term.  

I met some old friends recently and was delighted to do so – on two counts.  Firstly because I wanted to see them.  Secondly because it was one of those days when I was well enough to keep my appointment with them.  I was picked up by She-who-used to-organise-me and her partner.  They enquired how I was and vice versa – we all said ‘Fine’ with a laugh that indicated we all knew how each other really was but were happy not to go into it.  ‘Fine’ covers a multitude of aches, pains and problems.   I had some idea of her partner’s health issues and they know mine so we didn’t need to go into detail or justify how we were well enough that day to go visiting.

When we got to our destination a couple of folk who hadn’t seen me for years commented how well I was looking.  What do you do when someone says that? I was very tempted to go into details as to all the things that were wrong with me and how I was only there because it was a ‘Good’ day.  However I refrained. I just smiled and thanked them.  It's what you do...

May 9th

This has to be one of my favourite days of the year.  It's my younger daughter's birthday and the garden is really springing into life as are all the hedgerows.   

And I love the idea of it being  Lost Sock Memorial Day.

It is also the day that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fairies was founded.    

 
I know those two because of Messymimi’s super blog.  Despite its title the publisher of this book  (at the request of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fairies) notes that no fairies were injured or killed in the manufacturing process...   Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book  by Terry Jones, Brian Froud - A fairy book that is the diary kept by Lady Cottington. Instead of pressing flowers in it, she pressed fairies. Handwritten and handsomely bound, this fairy book is as surprising as it is pleasing.