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Live It Up 112: In a Big Country

One of Fife’s finest, Stuart Adamson, was the founding force behind the band Big Country.

He attended one of the schools I taught in Beath High School (but I think before my time there) and at least one his children was a pupil at the other, Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline.

Big Country’s skirling guitar sound was intended to invoke its members’ Scottish heritage as heard in this song. The clip seems to be a live version as performed on The Tube.

Big Country: In a Big Country

Dumbarton 2-1 Elgin City

SPFL Tier 3, The Rock, 27/8/22.

Club history!

Never before have we won our first five league games in a row.

Being a Dumbarton supporter of long-standing this is a very unusual circumstance to behold. We have won five games in a row mid-season but I still wonder if I’m dreaming.

We’ve yet to play three of the top five though.

I just don’t know what to think about it.

It’s almost incidental who actually scored but it was Ally Love with two penalties within minutes of each other. (Not Carsy on penalty duty I note.)

It’s East Fife away next week in what, since I live in Fife, amounts to a home game for me.

But since I’ve not seen us live this season I have a quandary. Do I keep doing the same thing as I’ve done every Saturday so far or go to the game and risk being a jinx?

John Henry Lorimer Exhibition

Earlier this week the good lady noticed that there was an exhibition of the works of John Henry Lorimer at the City Art Centre Edinburgh. That was only just in time. The exhibition opened in November but finishes tomorrow!

I have mentioned this artist before. And not just the once.

On Thursday (17th) we made post-haste to see the exhibition before it closed.

One of the first of his pictures previously unfamiliar to me was The Long Shadows painted, like so much of his work, in the grounds of Kellie Castle in Fife. This photo does not do it justice:-

The Long Shadows

Lorimer was a good portraitist. One of the paintings on show depicted the ordination of elders in a Scottish Kirk. The figures were so lifelike in all their Calvinistic awfulness I couldn’t bear to inflict it on myself or you.

This portrait is of Lorimer’s architect brother Robert Stodart Lorimer, who designed over 300 War Memorials including the Scottish National War Memorial which lies in Edinburgh Castle:-

Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer

Typical of Lorimer’s painting of light and very like Spring Moonlight (see first link above) in its use of candlelight is Grandmother’s Birthday:-

Grandmother's Birthday

Maternal Instinct by contrast contains very Victorian subject matter. Unfortunately reflections in the glass spoil this a little:-

Maternal Instinct

The window in this one features in many of Lorimer’s paintings. I think this is The Birthday Party:-

John Henry Lorimer Painting

Despite no overt lighting depiction this domestic subject is unmistakably Lorimer:-

Painting by John Henry Lorimer

Another fine portrait – of a lady. Unfortunately I forget whom:-

Portarit by John Henry Lorimer

A well as oils Lorimer was very good with watercolour. This, The Gyles House, Pittenweem, is the house in Pittenweem to which the artist retired:-

The Gyles House, Pittenweem

Housework’s Aureole. In real life this treatment of light falling through a window onto a wall is superb. The photo is nothing by comparison:-

Housework's Aureole

The exhibition’s poster image was Flight of the Swallows:-

Flight of the Swallows

Many more Paintings by Lorimer can be found at Art UK.

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery (Lest We Forget)

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery is one of the many Imperial (later Commonwealth) War Graves Commission cemeteries that lie in the countryside around Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium.

It lies near T’Hooghe (Hooge) off the Canadalaan (Canada Lane) itself coming off the Meenseweg (the Menin Road of dreadful memory.) Buried or commemorated in the cemetery are 1,989 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War of whom 1,348 are unidentified. For information about the cemetery see here.

I note from the link that this cemetery is the resting place (in Plot IV. D. 14) of Captain Robert Frederick Balfour, 1st Battalion Scots Guards who died on 28th October 1914, aged 31. He was the son of Edward Balfour, of “Balbirnie,” Markinch, Fife. I live a couple of hundred yards or so from the Balfours’ former home, Balbirnie House.

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery entrance:-

Entrance, Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Hooge, near Ypres

Stone of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice from entrance:-

Stone of Remembrance and Cross Sacrifice, Sanctuary Wood Cemetery

Information board:-

Information Board, Sanctuary Wood Cemetery

Graves:-

Graves, Sanctuary Wood Cemetery

Graves from south:-

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery Graves from South

I found one German War grave in the cemetery, Flieg Hauptmann Hans Roser, F Fliegerabt 3, 25/7/1915:-

German War Grave, Sanctuary Wood Cemetery

Just outside Sanctuary Wood Cemetery there is a private memorial in memory of Keith Rae, 2nd Lieutenant, 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade, “who died on this spot, 30/7/1915, in his 26th year.” “Also in memory of his brother officers and men who fell on the same morning and afternoon.”

No individual memorials were/are allowed inside Imperial/Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. Whatever their differences in life (not least in military rank) in death it was decided that all should be treated equally, with identical headstones. Apart from name rank, number and their regimental insignia (and a special marking in the shape of that award if the deceased had won a Victoria Cross) only an inscription chosen by the deceased’s family and situated to the bottom of the headstone distinguishes one from another.

I presume this memorial was allowed by the Belgian authorities since it lies beyond Sanctuary Wood Cemetery’s boundaries:-

Private Memorial Outside Sanctuary Wood Cemetery

The Back Burn, Balbirnie Park (iii)

The Back Burn, see here and here, runs through the old Balbirnie estate and on past Markinch.

Just near where we live it passes through a declivity. The burn isn’t easily spotted in this photo:-

Back Burn, Balbirnie, Fife

It’s just to the bottom at the right here:-

Back Burn , Balbirnie, Fife, Scotland

It flows over some rocks about halfway along:-

Back Burn, Balbirnie, Fife, Scotland

There are some flatter stretches too:-

Back Burn, Balbirnie, Fife

Balbirnie, Fife, Back Burn

Then it forms a barrier cutting off the golf course’s 18th fairway from the green.

Further on, looking back from beyond the golf course’s car park, you can see a second old bridge across the burn which was not undermined in the floods I mentioned here.

Back burn + bridge, Balbirnie, Fife

Another cascade:-

Back burn, Balbirnie, Fife

Flowers by the burn’s side:-

Flowers by Back Burn, Balbirnie, Fife

Trees by burn side:-

Back burn, Balbirnie, Fife

You can see the bridle path crossing in this one:-

Back burn, Balbirnie, Fife

War Graves and War Death Commemorations, Upper Largo, Fife

The kirkyard in Upper Largo (Largo and Newburn Parish Church, see previous post,) has two War Graves and two war commemorations.

To left. In memory of John Patrick Oliphant Russell, Captain, Royal Artillery, died of wounds in Italy, 7/9/1944. Buried at Gradara, Italy:-

War Death Commemoration Upper Largo Kirkyard 1>

Ralph Frederick Baxter, 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Sussex Regiment, killed in action, France, 25/9/1915, aged 18 and John Edward Baxter, 2nd Lieutenant, Scots Guards, killed in action in Italy, 16/10/1944, aged 19:-

War Deaths Commemoration Upper Largo Kirkyard

Serjeant T Simpson, Pioneer Coprs, formerly Royal Artillery, 10/8/1946, aged 46:-

War Grave, Upper Largo Kirkyard

Lower Inscription. In loving memory of Thomas Simpson, died 10th August, 1946:-

Lower Inscription War Grave Upper Largo Kirkyard

Lieutenant W A Freeborn, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, HMS Victory, 31/7/1944:-

Upper Largo Kirkyard War Grave

We took a diffeent way home from normal and had this unusual view of East and West Lomond, Fife’s highest hills from the Star (Star of Markinch) road:-

Two Lomonds in Fife

The Back Burn, Balbirnie (i)

The Back Burn runs through the Balbirnie Estate on its way from the East Lomond round Markinch and on to the River Leven near Methilhill. It’s good for walks – even when you’re not cooped up by a lockdown.

After wandering under the A 92 and through a wooded glen it runs past the eighteenth hole of the golf course built over half of the estate:-

Balbirnie burn

Then down a cobbled slope:-

Burn

Under a bridge:-

Back Burn

On:-

Burn

And on:-

Back Burn

Back Burn

Before swinging under another bridge to make a turn under Stob Cross Road across to the railway line and down the east of Markinch:-

Back Burn

One of the things you might not expect to see in Fife but is present in the estate is a Giant Redwood tree:-

giant redwood tree

There’s a wildlife pond between the boarded path and the redwood as seen from near the burn:-

A Giant Redwood in Fife

Balbirnie Estate has a lot of rhododendron plants. They’re just about on the point of coming into flower this year. This was from 2019:-

Rhododendron, Balbirnie, Fife

Fife’s Art Deco Heritage 16: Kinghorn Moderne House

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.

Art Deco/Moderne House, Kinghorn, Fife

Kinghorn Art Deco/Moderne House

Fife Pilgrim Way

A project to resurrect the mediæval Fife Pilgrim Way is now well in hand.

There were two main routes across the county (or kingdom as the locals still refer to it at times,) starting at Culross and North Queensferry and ending up at St Andrews.

The ancient route went through the nearest small town to Son of the Rock Acres, Markinch, the ancient capital of Fife.

There are some hopes the restored route(s) will bring modern day pilgrims (and other tourists) to the town.

A year or so ago there was an information day about the Pilgrim Way at St Drostan’s church. On display were several representations of monastic and pilgrim life, rendered in knitwear.

Trees and pilgrims:-

Knitted Trees and Pilgrims

Church:-

Knitted Church

Monks:-

Knitted  Monks

Monks’ garden:-

Knitted Garden

Monastery vegetable patch:-

Knitted Vegetable Patch

HMS Queen Elizabeth and Isle of May

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the Royal Navy’s latest aircraft carrier. (That’s the one there’s not enough money to fit out with any aircraft.)

She sailed out from her fitting out at Rosyth in the Firth of Forth for her sea trials in June 2017. We happened to be in Cellardyke, Fife that day and caught a glimpse of her near the Isle of May.

HMS Queen Elizabeth (yacht in front) and the Isle of May from Cellardyke Harbour:-

HMS Queen Elizabeth and the Isle of May

HMS Queen Elizabeth and Isle of May closer view:-

HMS Elizabeth and Isle of May

HMS Queen Elizabeth closer view:-
HMS Queen Elizabeth

Isle of May:-

Isle of May, Firth of Forth

HMS Queen Elizabeth and another ship:-

HMS Queen Elizabeth on Sea Trials

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