Boy, is it hot... and humid. It's an in between thunderstorms day. The ground wet but the sky blue and the sun strong. After our early day tour of the village Sophie retires to the kitchen for a napette in the cool air. She seems a little shell shocked by the heat.
The shrubs around the village pond that give shelter to the Moorhen chicks are about to be cut back again. A team of men with strimmers have parked their vans on the grass and are about to start work. Angus quietly seethes.
Angus could spend some considerable time in Bertie's Bar in Braemar : https://thefifearms.com/eat-drink/
Can't help but note this video clip is very short:https://twitter.com/Russia_NC/status/1411999048693948416
A reminder from a Memorial Service that Virginia is still very Scots. An unusual choice of tune. Usually the President is whisked away by the Secret Service but here he stays to the end but gives Mitch McConnell the most cursory of farewells :https://youtu.be/7O46KitAyk8?t=8689
13 comments:
I think I'll just skip right over the part about the shrubs around the pond - it's really annoying even from 6,000 miles away. I did not know that there were many Scots in Virginia. I looked up Scots in New Jersey out of curiousity, and it seems there was a large migration to East New Jersey in the late 1600s. I wondered, because my high school was known as the Highlanders. We had a pipes band, and Scotland the Brave was our fight song, with some modifications - every stanza ended with "Governor Livingston scores once again!" And Gov. William Livingston was, I have also learned today, of Scottish descent. It's really quite amazing what I've learned over the years reading a blog about PONs in France!
Bertie would love to join Angus in the Fife Arms. Gail is not sure that dogs are allowed in 'Bertie's Bar' at the Fife Arms, but Bertie feels that an exception could be made for an appropriately named and unfeasibly cute fox terrier.
Hot and humid on our morning walk here, too, and we're glad to be back home.
Does the German billionaire own the village pond, or has he come to an "arrangement" with the new mayor? Whichever, I think I would complain on behalf of the moorhen and her chicks, and any other pond dwelling creatures. If the billionaire is allowed to have his way, you'll be left with a decimated landscape. I just hope he keeps his strimmers away from the sunflowers!
Today is the last day of school. Only primary students have to stay until the end. In middle school and high school the classes wrap up for grading and the kids aren't required to be present unless their parents insist that they be babysat.
I hope that Coppa's girl isn't right about the German billionaire tending the village pond. There's a German château owner nearby (the château has been turned into a hotel), who gated a road next to his castle, cutting off access to the ruins of a church and a Visigoth cemetery, neither of which he owns. The villagers make a point of going down the road. I understand that he doesn't want the local tykes on scooters and ATVs tearing loudly past his château, but the villagers fear he's trying to exercise ownership of what's not his. Typical lordly behavior.
Hari OM
Oh I'm glad you mentioned the sunflowers - I was thinking about them as I visited here yesterday and wondered how this year's crop is doing! I too am seething about the pond business... YAM xx
In this case 'billionaire' behavior.
I'm not surprised about historic Scots names in NJ. What's interesting is that the London government used to ship Scottish rebels from the 1715 and 1745 rebellions to the 'American colonies' as indentured labour or for 10 years of enforced military service. Adding them to the dissenting Scots who were turning up in large numbers from the 1680's onwards and there was a three or four generation old anti-government, anti-King under current in American politics by the time the 1770's came along. One of the reasons there are so many Scots names on the Declaration of Independence and why even today you can hear a 'twang' in Some SC and TN accents.
I'm sure Bertie would be welome in Bertie's if the situation was explained to the bar man.
I am writing to the town council to find out who owns the pond. This is a quiet way of making sure the issue is raised, recognized and formalised.
Give it a week and there will be sunflower pictures galore on the site.
I was wondering if Gail and the beloved by all Bertie had even been to Bertie’s Bar!
Bertie's bar sounds great. A different whiskey to try every day of the year, and with dog friendly accommodation on offer imagine what it would be like if Bertie and Sophie (plus you, “The Font” and Gail) finally got to meet and holiday together after so many years of shared blogging adventures and online friendship!
Our builder told us that, sadly, many of the Germans building villas here look on Spain as the "Wild West" and therefore ignore all laws. Borne out by the German construction below me, with planning permission for a two storey family sized four bedroom villa, but ended up as twenty nine rooms in four apartments on three levels. They incurred a 60,000 euro fine, and disappeared without paying!
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