Scots are not generally given to flag-waving from their properties.

Exceptions come when the national football team qualifies for a major tournament; as it did for Euro 2020 (due to Covid, played in the summer of 2021.)

Maybe there was an extra excuse this time because the previous occasion when Scotland graced a big tournament was in 1998!

The flags have long gone now.

This is from Caltech via Astronomy Picture of the Day for 3/10/21.

If you let your eyes defocus (stare through the screen) for a while, it may be you can see the teapot.

Actually while on the APOD page I could see the teapot, at the size here I can see two!

This array resolves into a shark.

The B 6278 road between Stanhope and Barnard Castle (see previous posts on those settlements) has a seriously sharp turn and then very steep climb just after Stanhope. Before long you are in middle of nowhere territory. Nothing but the road and moorland hills.

And then you come across the sheep. (Well we did.)

I eventually stopped for this photo to be taken. Earlier on there had been several sheep on the road but I managed to navigate past them going slowly before I thought there was a photo opportunity. (I noted the snow poles by the roadside while I was driving. You could almost be in Scotland):-

At least these two weren’t a hazard to drivers:-

Driving in upland Britain. Always an adventure.

Mind you I’ve come across sheep blocking the road before. Once on a trip up East Lomond (aka Falkland Hill) from Leslie to the pass at the top over to Falklkand. A whole flock was being moved from one field to another. They covered the road and there was no option but to stop. They were jumping and climbing all over each other but they must have had an excellent sense of space because they all passed the car without any of them touching it.

Once, on Wemyshall Road by Hill of Tarvit Mansion, there was a single sheep on the road which obviously thought the grass there would be sweeter than in the field.

And then there was Duirinish.

From You Tube via Astronomy Picture of the Day for 29/9/21.

I’ve never seen lightning like this captured in Puerto Rico. Have you?

Apparently this type of gigantic jet lightning was not observed untill this century.

I can trace part of my ancestry back to my grandmother’s family in Tyneside. She was born Margery Besford in Hebburn, now South Tyneside, but a book I inherited through her from her father suggested he had once lived in Cramlington, Northumberland. There in May 2021 I found this headstone relating to an even earlier generation of Besfords.

The gravestone tells of the unfortunate fate of John Besford. He was run over by a train on Stannington viaduct. How devastating that must have been for the family. His young wee daughter followed him just a year later. Annie was obviously a bad luck name for the Besfords as the Annie in the following generation, my granny’s older sister, also died very young, of Scarlet Fever I think.

On the way back up from Peterborough we stopped off at the village of Aldborough in Yorkshire.

There are Roman remains there but the English Heritage site was shut due to Covid restrictions so we couldn’t access them. Maybe another time.

Aldborough is one of those English villages centred round a village green. It’s slightly unusual in that the green still has a maypole.

The other part of the green has a lovely oak tree on it:-

There was the obligatory church (St Andrew’s):-

Another historical hangover is the presence of stocks:-

The memorial you can see beyond the stocks in the photo above was erected on the 50th anniversary of an air crash where due to the skill of the pilot the aeroplane narrowly avoided Aldborough. All seven crew were killed.

This stone is just along from the memorial. It records where MPs for Aldborough and Boroughbridge were elected in the days before the Great Reform Act of 1832. Was Aldborough a rotten borough?

A curiosity in Peterborough Cathedral is this unusual clock.

It strikes every half an hour. Often enough I suppose for the monks to get their Lauds, Matins, Vespers and Compline right.

Information board:-

The clock itself:-

Doune Castle (see previous post) is built on a promontory just above the River Teith. The river’s banks are pretty overgrown now so it’s not easy to see the river till you get quite close to it.

It must be fine for fishing though as there was an angler there the day we visited:-

The Teith flows on to join with the River Forth just upstream of Stirling. Curiously, the Teith is the wider river at this point but the merged river is called the Forth.

Occasionally a micro-light flies over Son of the Rock Acres.

Less often we get a light aircraft, but last May we did.

I’ve no idea what type it was.

One of the discoveries the National Trust made in Calke Abbey was hidden away in wooden chests since it had arrived at the house in the early nineteenth century. It was a state bed, perhaps given to Lady Caroline Manners as a wedding present when she married Sir Henry Harpur, but the bed didn’t fit any of the rooms in the house.

However its seclusion in the chest preserved the Chinese silk of the bed’s hangings, keeping them in great condition. It is all housed behind glass to protect it so the photos are a bit indistinct. It’s a magnificent survival, though:-

Smaller pieces of the silk were also found in the chest:-

The wooden chests:-

Another eclectic item in the house was this organ with mandolin above:-