A late night chat with the Manhattanites. The chief honcho, who rarely appears on these calls, has the final pithy word - 'Relative to this morning things are much better. Relative to a week ago things are significantly worse'. That seems a pretty good summary of where we are.
A thick sea fog makes the start of our morning walk decidedly cold and chill. A hundred yards inland - towards the village - it's sunny and warm. The farmer tells me we're in drought territory. We've not had a drop of rain in a month. He and his teenage sons are busy laying out a system of hoses to take water from the burn to irrigate the freshly planted but already parched potato fields. The Irish lady by the cross roads leans on her front gate and tells us she doesn't know what the worlds coming to. " A drought in April ! Who'd have thought such a thing possible ! ". She's making breakfast porridge for her six year old twins so having shared these thoughts with us she heads back indoors.
The weather forecast says we can expect 20 degrees this afternoon. In anticipation paragliders are out in force and buzzing low over the village.
The centre of town is busy with half term holiday makers so we divert to the calm of the cathedral ruins.
In the graveyard no doubting that this is a golf town. What a grand monument.
Scots and the southern states of America have had a long and intertwined history. One grave in the cathedral precincts shows a man who died in Mobile, Alabama on the 31st January 1886. He was interred here on the 19th February. How did they ship his remains back so quickly ? You'd be hard pressed to match that efficiency today. We wonder if Darien, Georgia was named after that important disaster in Scottish history the Darien colony in Panama ?
This mornings car radio music :https://youtu.be/NzUMfVpugq4
I never remember any :https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-brain-on-food/202504/why-do-some-people-always-remember-their-dreams
This may not have been Mercedes smartest move :https://www.carscoops.com/2025/04/byd-goes-after-germans-with-euro-launch-of-denza/
19th century tariffs :https://www.economicforces.xyz/p/high-tariffs-didnt-make-the-us-rich
11 comments:
I always remember my dreams, my husband never. He sleeps deeply, I don't. No swallows here yet near the Moray Firth, but lots of house and sand martins.
Wikipedia is your friend
The town of Darien (originally known as "New Inverness") was founded in January 1736 by Scottish Highlanders recruited by James Oglethorpe to act as settler-soldiers protecting the frontiers of Georgia from the Spanish in Florida, the French in the Alabama basin, and the Indian allies of each colonial enterprise. On January 10, 1736, 177 emigrants, including women and children, arrived on the Prince of Wales to establish Darien, which was named after the Darien scheme, a former Scottish colony in Panama. Among the initial settlers was Lachlan McGillivray, who became a noted trader with the Creek people, and Lachlan McIntosh, a leader during the American Revolutionary War.
Hari OM
Good question: sailing the Atlantic then would have been at the very least six weeks, probably longer. I wonder if the wording is misleading. Could this be a memorial only and 'here' refers to Mobile itself? The wife has erected the stone on her repatriation after his death - and was thus able to include the name of their son on the memorial, who must still lie yonder, having passed ten years earlier than father. YAM xx
I didn't know there was a Darien in Georgia, or in Panama for that matter. But I do know Darien, Connecticut and here's what Wikipedia has to say about that:
[T]he name Darien was decided upon when the residents of the town could not agree on a name to replace Middlesex Parish, many families wanting it to be named after themselves . . . ] A sailor who had traveled to Isthmus of Darien, then part of the Spanish Empire, suggested the name Darien, which was eventually adopted by the people of the town.
As it is now the Easter school holidays, tradition demands that the weather be foul. So far, it's been lovely . . .
What a deep blue Arizona sky.
What a delightful morning walk. I enjoy walking through old cemeteries...so much food for thought.
I see that you'll be in Scotland while we're in Japan. Hope the weather holds up and remains 20 degrees and cloudless. Go for a drink in the Finneston bar in Glasgow and go to the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh if it's wet. Exams start in St Andrews on May 7th so the place may be sedate after the May morning party on the East Sands.
Yes, the visit to the ruins and the cemetery were an interesting choice. Clearly drought is defined differently in different parts of the world!
You're correct, introducing the Denza to Europe may well not be MBs best move.
Thanks for the tips, sorry that we will miss you. Let me know the next time you are in the Washington DC area.
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