Feed Me !

They say a picture is worth a thousand words ...

Where's Our Water ...?

Humans aren't the only ones that have problems during the cold weather, as these mallards easily show.  They also will be more than happy once the thaw arrives.

Winter ...

It's been several years since we've had any snowfall to speak of.  This year it's different, with lots of snow and continued low temperatures.  It's now Jan 8th, and I've made it out on one day, the rest of the time I've either been snowed in ...

However, there are othe people worse off, and some of the boys from the rescue team have been providing a service to the community and assisting with hospital transfers...

And to end the day ...

Tornadoes in the Forth ...

From the BBC News Website ...

Two mini tornados have been spotted off the coast of Fife in the Firth of Forth.

The Forth Coastguard said it monitored two water spouts measuring about 600ft high at 1230 GMT on Wednesday.

They said each mini tornado lasted about five minutes and both were travelling west towards the Isle of May. No damage was reported.

The Bass

The Bass Rock completes the island group of the outer Forth.  A volcanic plug, it stand 107 metres high and is visible for miles around.  No surprise then that it currently houses a lighthouse, albeit one which is only visible on it's southern flank, as detailed in the chart ...

The Bass Rock has had a colourful history.  It's earliest recorded inhabitant was St.Baldred.  Not much is known about St.Baldred.  He spread the Christain word around the 6th/7th century.  It is said he lived a very simple life, lived the life of a hermit, and often retired to the Bass for contemplation. 

Over the centuries it has been used as a prison and a garrison.  A summary of it's history can be found here.  Nowadays it has a more "peaceful" existence as a bird reserve, being a home to around 50,000 pairs of gannets, reputedly the largest gannet colony on mainland Britain.

From a kayaking perspective, the main approaches to the Bass are from North Berwick, vial The Leithies

Or from Seacliff Beach ...

Seacliffe Beach is a private beach, for which two £1 coins are required for entry. 

The Eastern / North Eastern side of the Bass can usually be relied upon for a healthy dose of clapotis.  Once I manage to hold a camera in it I'll post some pictures !

Orion's Belt ( But not as we know it )

Fidra, Lamb and Craigleith make up the North Berwick '3.  Combined with Bass Rock they make for a good paddle.  On their own, as a group of three, they are easily do-able on a summer's evening.

Fidra, the leftmost island above houses a lighthouse and can be landed on in calm weather.  There is a landing stage on the east side of the island.  However, there is also a small pebble beach on the southern side than can be used by kayaks. 

The lighthouse was completed in 1885.  It's now pretty much a bird reserve, with a webcam operated by the Scottish Seabird Centre.

The island is said to be the inspiration behind Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island'.  It's easy to forget that Edinburgh is half an hour's drive from here !

Craigleith, seen here through the whalebones on North Berwick Law, is the first island to be reached from North Berwick.  Home to seals, and, hopefully, an increasing population of puffins.  In relatively recent years, the island has suffered from an abundance of tree mallow.  This has taken over the island and resulted in a decline in puffin numbers.  Measures are now in place for an annual purge of tree mallow in an effort to encourage other plant species to grow and provide suitable nesting sites for the puffins.

Pyramids in Scotland ...

Lamb Island is part of an archipelago of four islands near to North Berwick, the others being Fidra, Craigleith and Bass Rock.  Geologically they have their origins from volcanoes.  However, the following portrays an alternative view ...

Statement by Uri Geller



Why I Bought Lamb Island


2009-02-12 6:46


Television presenter and world-famous mystifier Uri Geller revealed today that he is the new owner of a mysterious and enigmatic island claimed to be one of the Great Pyramids of Scotland.


Lamb Island, a volcanic outcrop in the Firth of Forth north of Edinburgh, is one of three rocky outcrops which mirror the layout of the Pyramids at Giza, near Cairo in Egypt.


"I am fascinated by the connection between the pyramids and these islands," said Geller, 62, who is currently filming in Holland and Germany his reality TV show for mentalists, The Next Uri Geller.


"The connection has been known for centuries — you can read about it in a fifteenth century manuscript called the Scotichronichon, by the Abbot of Inchcolm, Walter Bower. So when I heard Lamb Island was for sale, I felt a strong instinctive urge to buy it — and the more I delved into the history and the archaeological lore which surrounds it, the more certain I became that this is one of the most significant sites in Britain."


Geller was first alerted to the existence of Lamb Island by a story in the Times on October 19, 2008, which said a Brazilian-born internet entrepreneur, Camilo AgasimPereira, who owned the title of Baron of Fulwood and Dirleton, was planning to sell the island. He had been bequeathed it in 2002, and had never set foot on it. Agasim-Pereira now lives in Florida.


"The asking price was £75,000, but after negotiations we were able to settle on a fee of just £30,000," Geller said. "This island has links not only to the pyramids, but to King Arthur, King Robert the Bruce and to the ancient Kings of Ireland too. It might seem forbidding, and it is certainly uninhabitable, but it is also one of the keystones to British mythology, and I am thrilled to be its owner."


The connections to myth can only be understood by tracing leylines, the mysterious invisible paths which dowsers claim to be able to sense as flowing lines of energy. To many dowsers, leylines are as real as streams of underground water — but unlike water, leylines follow rigid patterns and run in straight lines. They link most of the world's significant archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the great temples of south-east Asia, as well as obscure monument and buildings connected to powerful religious societies from long ago, such as the Knights Templar.


According to research published by a historical investigator named Jeff Nisbet, in the magazine Atlantis Rising, in September 2002, there are three crucial Templar sites in the UK: the village of Temple, Rosslyn Chapel and the Isle of May. This last is believed by some Arthurian scholars to be the real location of Avalon, the island where King Arthur was laid to rest and await his return as the Once and Future King.


Lines drawn between the three points cut through a pair of islands in the Firth of Forth, called Craigleith and Fidra. And lying between these is a third outcrop: Lamb Island.


What Nisbet realised is that the three islands are arranged in precisely the same crooked line that marks the layout of the Pyramids at Giza, built by the Pharoahs 4,500 years ago.


That layout famously matches the three stars known as Orion's Belt, and Nisbet discovered that anyone standing on the battlefield of Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce defeated the English army in 1314, on the anniversary of the battle on June 24, would see the three stars (Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka) rise exactly over the three islands of Craigleith, Lamb and Fidra.


And if the royal connections to Arthur and the Bruce were not enough, a line extended from the Isle of May through Lamb Island will cross Tara, the burial place of the ancient Irish kings. More improbable yet — but nevertheless true — is the name traditionally given to the stars of Orion's belt: the Three Kings.


"I am a deep believer in what Carl Jung called synchronicity, the power of connections between things which are linked by forces we don't understand," said Geller, who lives with his wife Hanna in a manor house in the Berkshire countryside, beside the Thames. "And there are many clear synchronicities that come together on Lamb Island. I have heard it said that the bloodline of the Scottish Kings — and so that of Queen Elizabeth II herself — can be traced back to the pharoahs and to the Jewish patriarch Noah, of Noah's Ark, through an ancient Prince and Princess called Gaythelos and Scota. I like to think that when they landed in Scotland, the first place they moored was in the Firth of Forth, off Lamb Island.


"I am proud to have this opportunity to preserve it, not just for its mythological and historical connections but for its conservation value — Lamb Island is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. I can't build there, of course, but it is home to countless seabirds, and perhaps to seals too. And before long, I hope to pay it a visit. I might need a helicopter, but I am determined to set foot on my island soon."


In April of 2002 Falkirk–born historian John Walker initiated my interest in Scotland’s history when he asked me to find the site of the Battle of Falkirk of 1298, in which Edward I defeated the Scots in revenge for Stirling Bridge the year before. Despite many theories, its location has never been verified. No artifacts have been uncovered, I believe only two bodies were unearthed.


I would love to investigate further some of the country’s historical and modern mysteries.


National Library of Scotland – Rare Books Important acquisitions – Scotichronicon – the key text of early Scottish history.


The Lamb: A metaphor for Jesus Christ used primarily in the Book of Revelation.


For further amazing information please visit http://www.mythomorph.com/


What surprised me is that The Firth contains several small islands, the more significant of which are the Bass Rock, Cramond, Craigleith, Eyebroughy, Fidra, Inchcolm, Inchgarvie, Inchkeith, Inchmickery, Lamb and, farthest out, the Isle of May which = 11 islands!


I thought that the weather on Lamb isn't sun kissed....it's rain drenched for about 364 days a year. It was pointed out to me that in fact this part of Scotland is the driest and sunniest.

Snowbound ...

Snow continued to fall last night and today.  Winds have been relatively light, and, although there has been a steady drip, the net result has been an increase in depth.

It is good to see reasonable accumulations of snow after the last few relatively mild winters.  It's been lying  for about two weeks now.  However, one downside of this is that the roads this morning were not driveable by a normal two wheel drive car, and that plans to do something a bit more adventurous than shovel snow have had to be postponed.  The hills and sea will wait for another day, but it's a bit frustrating not being able to get out.

 

Last Callout for the year ...

Yesterday saw search for a missing person on the outskirts of Edinburgh.  Our own team, TVMRT, was assisted by BSARU, plus the Cave Rescue guys and girls.  In itself that was nothing too unusual.  However, matters became a bit more complicated when a second incident arose, involving a dislocated knee in stalk, in heavy snow.  The rescue Sea King was already airborne and en route to assist with the first search, when we had to retask the aircraft to deal with the second incident, some 40 miles away.  A Land Rover was also sent as backup to the aircraft, should it have been retasked to another incident or should the weather prove to be an issue.  But all went well and the aircraft picked up the casualty.

At the same time as this was happening, one of the search team in Edinburgh had an unfortunate encounter with a barrel of what turned out to be ammonia.  So it was off to hospital with him. 

Late in the afternoon, the missing person was located.  But to add to the issues, the electrics in the Land Rover played up and left us with only sidelights.  Which on a dark winter's night, with police in tow, was perhaps not the best.  Fortunately the fog lights worked, which provided sufficient light to get back to Peebles.

So an interesting day one way and another.

Up North, avalanches claimed three lives in two separate accidents.

The Outgoing Year ...

The last couple of weeks has seen a prolonged cold spell, adding some long lost snow to the Border landscape.

The stock are mostly inside, leaving the fields empty ...

The main Minto Hill.