The reason we visited Ceres in September last year was to take a look at the Fife Folk Museum.

Entrance as seen from bridge over the Ceres Burn:-

Inside the museum there is a small section devoted to crime and punishment, including an old prison cell:-

Beside this are two notices relating to trials and punishment:-

This second one mentions jougs, a kind of stocks:-

On the outside wall at the other side of the building to the entrance is an old doorway beside which is an example of a joug:-

The carved motto above the door reads, “God bless the just.”:-

Bridge over the Ceres Burn from grounds of Fife Folk Museum:-

Reverse angle:-

This bridge carries the main road (B939) through the village over the Ceres Burn:-

Castlegate Street, Ceres:-

Our nearest town, Markinch, is on the Highland Games circuit.

Like many other things this year’s event sadly had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Last year, however, we made our first visit to Markinch Games as part of our contribution to the community. The Community Council provided filled rolls and coffee, tea etc at the Pavilion in John Dixon Park and we were helping there. We both managed to get around for a wander though.

(It wasn’t our first Highland Games. Many years ago we had attended one in Ceres.)

It’s not just athletics, there’s a Pipe Band competition – you can’t get away from the sound of the pipes – and a fun fair.

Video of fun fair:-

Athletics field:-

Throwing the weight over a bar:-

Not always successfully:-

There was caber tossing too (you could see the cabers on the ground) but it wasn’t on at the time either of us had the stroll.

The athletics is taken very seriously. They had testers for illegal use of performance enhancing drugs in a separate room at the Pavilion.

This is a video of the finish of the 1600m handicap race:-

The village green, called the Bow Butts, taken from the site of the Bannockburn Monument:-

Ceres old bridge, from the car park:-

Ceres Burn from the old bridge:-

A folly (to the left of the bridge, above):-

In Ceres churchyard I found several Commonwealth War Graves and one for the Polish forces.

Private Mary Lindsay, Auxiliary Territorial Service, 20/8/1945, age 21:-

Sister Mary Lister (Peddie) Waddell, Princess Mary’s RAF Nursing Service, 5/8/1947, age 30:-

Corporal W Buchan, RAF, 7/9/1940, age 19:-

A family grave which commemorates William Husband, killed in action in France, 23/3/1918, age 20, and David Husband, who died as a result of war service, in Crail, on 2/4/1929, age 38:-

The Polish War Grave. Corporal Jan Niemiec, 1st Polish Rifle Brigade, 28/11/1940:-

Ceres is a village in central Fife.

The monument was erected on the six-hundredth anniversary of Scotland’s most famous victory in battle, at Bannockburn in 1314, to commemorate the men of Ceres who fought in it. It’s situated by the side of the “Bow Butts” as Ceres’s village green is called.

Ceres holds a Highland Games every year. It is said to have hosted a games every year since 1314 after Robert the Bruce granted permission in commemoration of the village men’s contribution to his victory.

Bannockburn Monument, Ceres:-

Inscription:-

Ceres, the largest of the Solar System’s asteroids, has around 150 mysteriously bright spots which are now thought to be composed of a form of hydrated magnesium sulphate.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day 11/12/15 this is the brightest of them:-

Astronomy Picture of the Day was 20 years old on Jun 16^th. It has been on a bit of a roll recently.

The Pinwheel Galaxy (Jun 14^th):-

The Black Eye galaxy (Jun 18^th):-

On 23^rd Jun there was this star bubble round Sharpless 2-308:-

This is a picture of Zeta Ophiuchi (Jul 5^th) which is travelling to the left at 24 kilometres per second thus causing the bow-shock in the interstellar dust as shown:-

The next day gave us this picture of clouds near Rho Ophiuchi

Then Jul 8^th had this stunning scene of Dione, Saturn and Enceladus (Saturn is visible only as a faint arc and its rings are edge-on):-

Fly-over Ceres, Jun 10^th, a composite of still pictures:-

It’s exciting times for NASA as New Horizons is getting very close to Pluto. See yesterday’s picture:-

Wonderful stuff.

Images of dwarf planet Ceres, taken from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft and made into a movie. (Via Astronomy Picture of the Day, 10/6/15.)

Itchy Coo, 2002, 90 p.

This slim volume contains retellings of tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, reimagined in a living, vibrant Scots.

The first piece, The Hoose O Haivers by James Robertson introduces the eponymous Hoose, a place where earth, sea and sky meet and the whole world can be seen. A house of rumour and tale telling, of scoom, scandal, clatter, claik, crack, claivers, clish-clash and clype.

Phaethon’s Hurl in the Sky by James Robertson
Phaethon, the mortal son of Phoebus the Sun god, boasts so much about his father that he is challenged to prove the relationship. He asks to drive Phoebus’s chariot across the skies. The task is beyond him.

The Weavin Contest by Susan Rennie
The goddess Athena hears of Arachne’s skill with weaving and challenges her to a contest. She doesn’t like the result.

King Mehdas by Matthew Fitt
Takes as a starting point Midas’s famous greed for gold but elaborates on the theme of his thoughtlessness.

The Cave o Dreams by James Robertson
Is where Hypnus sleeps and where all manner of dreams lie. But when his son Morpheus comes to you, is what you see real?

Echo An Narcissus by James Robertson
Echo and Narcissus.

Ariadne in the Cloods by Susan Rennie
Tells of how Ariadne helped Theseus to slay the Minotaur and escape the Labyrinth but then her dancing attracted the attention of the god Dionysus who took her up to Olympus where she dances on the clouds still. With a side serving of Dædalus and Icarus.

The Man That Made a Meal o Himsel
Starts with a discussion on the pronunciation of Erystichthon’s name before relating how he angers the goddess Ceres by cutting down her favourite oak tree. She then arranges for him to be afflicted with constant hunger, which no amount of food can assuage.

Orpheus an Eurydice by Matthew Fitt
Orpheus and Eurydice.

The Aipple Race by Susan Rennie
Atalanta can run so fast she can dodge even Eros’s arrows. These miss her and go on to hit others who as a result moon over her. One such, Hippomenes, engages the services of the goddess Aphrodite who provides him with enchanted apples to distract Atalanta so that Hippomenes can beat her in a race and so marry her. His lack of gratitude for this annoys Aphrodite.

The Twelve Trauchles o Heracles by Matthew Fitt
The labours of Hercules. Trauchles however is more nuanced than labours. A trauchle is an unavoidable and difficult task that “ends up daein yer napper in.” This story contained the wonderful phrase, “fair ripped Hera’s knittin’,” (which can be rendered much less pithily as “discommoded Hera greatly.”)

The Hoose o Pythagoras by James Robertson
Is a companion tail to The Hoose O Haivers’s tip. A discussion on the necessity of change and on whether the fantasies in this book are any more unreal than things we commonly take for granted.

This is a delightful little book but anyone without experience of spoken and written Scots will likely struggle with its content. The writing does however show what a vital, earthy and vigorous language Scots can be.