SPFL Tier 3, Balmoor, 25/1/20.

According to the BBC Sport website we had the better of the first half. Not so the second. It seems they were all over us.

And it could have been worse as they also managed to miss a penalty.

Even so we still had more shots on target than them.

We badly neeed a fit striker though.

Devonvale Mills was sited at Tillicoultry. The Memorial now lies beside a retail outlet.

Closer view:-

Dedication. Inscribed, “1939 – 1945. To the men of Devonvale Mills who gave their lives for their country” with names below:-

Reverse view. Sterling Mills warehouse across road.

Memorial gates:-

Memorial information board:-

I was so saddened to hear of the death of Terry Jones but it was even sadder that his fertile mind had been undermined in the last years of his life by dementia.

Everyone knows Jones from Monty Python (and his eponymous Flying Circus) but I first remember his appearances in the ITV series Do Not Adjust Your Set which ran in the late 1960s. I see some of that programme’s episodes are now on You Tube.

Many of the traits later to be expanded on in Monty Python’s Flying Circus were there in embryo.

There are many classic Jones/Python moments. Here are just three:-

Mouse organ:-

Terence Graham Parry Jones: 1/2/1942 – 21/1/2020. So it goes.

This has an unusually grown-up lyric for a pop song, dealing as it does not merely with a teen break-up, but divorce, with the viewpoint partner obviously still enamoured of her departed husband.

“But tell me does she kiss/Like I used to kiss you?
Does it feel the same/When she calls your name?”

ABBA: The Winner Takes it All

The good lady is a keen gardener and when she heard that the Japanese Garden, at Cowden, Clackmannanshire was reopening after being a long time overgrown, we had to visit. The garden was first opened in 1908, but was closed to the public in 1955 and left to go to ruin. Thankfully the recent restoration is restoring the garden to its former glory.

Japanese gardens are very elegant. Despite the refurbishment still going on Cowden certainly is. There is an air of peace and harmony about the place. Japanese bridges are especially elegant. The first bridge below is by the path near the garden’s entrance. The second spans the garden’s large pond:-

Pagoda and bridge:-

Zen garden:-

Bench:-

The burn which feeds the pond:-

Path to bridge:-

Stones and ornament with bridge in background:-

I posted some photographs of the nearest War Memorial (Markinch) to Son of the Rock Acres here. I did not at the time post details of the dedications.

Great War dedication, “To the glory of God and in memory of the men from Markinch who laid down their lives in the Great War 1914 – 1919” below carved figure of St George.

World War 2 dedication, “Remember also those who laid down their lives in the Second World War 1939 – 1945,” plus names of the fallen below carved figure of St Drostan:-

Surround stones. These display the names of the Great War dead on their internal faces:-

This is situated on Pettycur Road almost at the bottom, near the harbour wall and opposite the car park. Lots of horizontals and verticals here. Rule of three in windows. Flat roofs.

Rebel Inc, 1999, 253 p Including 9 p Appendices. One of the 100 best Scottish Books.

Had it not been for that 100 best Scottish books list I would never have sought this out. As it was I couldn’t say I enjoyed it exactly but it was interesting and well written. It has an odd structure though, broken up into five sections titled respectively Click, Fright, Sad, Preparation, The Experiment; and the viewpoint shifts between Click and Fright and Fright and Sad are a bit jarring – but probably intentionally so.

The first two are memoirs of two inmates in The Breathhouse, a psychiatric institution, where the inmates have all been given nicknames by the staff to illustrate their quirks (not only Click and Fright, but also Blade, Dogger, Treats and Synth.)

Click took photographs both in actuality (once he was given a camera by his parents) and in his head. He calls his parents Exit (because she did) and Panic (because he was prone to.) Fright’s section is a transcript of tapes made of him relating his memories as part of his therapy. He and his brother witnessed his mother’s death at the hands of his father and were later subjected to dark experiences in a caravan. The last three sections are written from the viewpoint of Dr Curtis Sad who is indulging in psychosexual research in the area of inter-family sexuality. Sad calls his other professionals psychohacks, and receives communications from Peterson, a like-minded psychosexual researcher in the US (but whose letters, rendered in the text in italics, use British English spellings.)

Sad is obsessed with his Sister Josie, about whom he has memories/fantasies of a distinctly unbrotherly hue. These demonstrate he is as loopy as any of the inmates. He refers to “memory recovery as a form of lethal weapon,” is setting up an exercise in milieu therapy in which he will reconstruct the environments in which Click and Fright suffered their traumas. He enlists Blade, Dogger, Treats and Synth to help construct these. Does this sound as if all will go well?

Three appendices provide us respectively with the Rules of Psychiatry which Curtis refers to in sequence at intervals in the main narrative, notes from his sister Julie’s (much needed in my opinion given Sad’s account of her childhood and adolescence) psychotherapy sessions, and an index of Click’s photos.

In Scar Culture Davidson has opened up the world of the psychologically disturbed (and perhaps that of the practitioners of psychiatric well-being.) It is certainly important to consider in fiction the plight of the mentally unwell – and of those whose upbringing has rendered them unstable – but it is by no means a comfortable experience to read of them.

Curiously, my edition has rough-cut page edges (though the tops and bottoms were smooth) as if it had been published in the nineteenth century.

Pedant’s corner:- “‘Its safe here’” (It’s,) “‘but I couldn’t been to look at him’” (couldn’t bear,) a missing end quotation mark (x2,) “was back here in that mountainside lagoon” (back there makes more sense,) out-with (it’s one word, outwith,) “tickled out feet” (our feet,) “he would researched” (he would be researched,) “an sheepish look” (a sheepish look,) “liked to fight too much, like to use her hands to scratch” (liked to use her hands,) “my parents lies’ left off” (my parents’ lies left off,) “that’s just kind of moronic psychobite” (just the kind of,) winge (whinge,) “in small coffin shaped cardboard box” (in a small,) “on the dolls back” (doll’s,) Breatthouse (elsewhere always Breathhouse,) a missing end quotation mark (x4, one in Appendix II,) snuck (sneaked,) “for the the first hour” (only one ‘the’ required,) “in regard, to why you are here” (no comma needed,) airplane (aeroplane.) “Every tree … had been stripped of their bark” (of its bark,) “nasal wines” (whines.)

I had two days out really.

On Friday on the way up to Aberdeen the good lady and I stopped at Dunnottar Castle and also took the chance to visit Stonehaven War Memorial which is walkable from there. (Photos of both will be coming eventually.)

Later in the afternoon she made a good trawl of the Old Aberdeen Book Shop in Spital.

Even better pickings were obtained at the Mercat Bookshop in Castle Street the next morning (I even bought two books) and then we had a look at two antique shops before we retired to a modern style hostelry for lunch with my younger son and his wife.

Imagine our surprise when the establishment was invaded by Sons fans who certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves, which the bar staff took in good part. The flag intimated they were from Helensburgh.

On to the match, with ticket at the ready:-

The Sons contingent had several good flags on the wave:-

The pre-match entertainmenmt was way over the top. There’s absolutely no need for this sub-USian rubbish:-

Even if the Aberdeen fans in the Merkland Stand also had a good array of flags:-

The teams emerge. Two more good Sons flags at the bottom here:-

Sons to the fore. This season’s ‘home’ strip – yellow and black wide stripes, with black shorts, on show (and a rather silly-looking Aberdeen mascot at top right. They had at least two mascots, which is probably two too many):-

Sons line up for the game:-

Scottish Cup* Fourth Round, Pittodrie Stadium, 18/1/20.

Once again, we wuz robbed.

After Sons had held out for 87 minutes Aberdeen’s striker Sam Cosgrove went over like a sack of spuds in the penalty box. (Well, he’d been falling over every time a Sons player came near him all game so why would he give up the habit with three minutes to go?) Once again the ref bought it. And Cosgrove put away the penalty.

So, despite not a shot on target and only one corner won in the whole game – and that almost into stoppage time – one of the best Sons displays in the last few years ended up without reward. Defensively we were brilliant. Okay maybe they had thirteen or so chances – but they only caused Conor Brennan in our goal to exert himself about three times.

This Aberdeen side was a pale shadow of the team we played in the Cup Quarter-Final (six years ago now,) ponderous, unimaginative, plodding, but we’re not even a patch on what we were back then (as I said to my son during the game we’re not even a darn on that side) so this was a magnificent performance. It deserved better reward than a dodgy penalty against with three minutes to go. But them’s the breaks when you’re a wee team.

Again the assembled Sons fans trotted out those old favourites “What a shitey home support,” “We forgot that you were here,” “SPL, you’re having a laugh,” (admittedly that one’s really out of date now) and “You only sing when you’re winning.” Instead of Jamie Langfield it was that same Sam Cosgrove who was told, “you’re a wanker, you’re a wanker.”

Notwithstanding the final result it was a great day out. That sense of togetherness in the away section and the support for the team were both superb.

*William Hill Scottish Cup,