Genealogy Series: Bigamy, Adultery and Murder - Talk to Scottish Genealogy Society

Transcription to follow.

Comments

Life Behind the Gate

For the first time in many years, the gate into our house is shut. Not to keep us in but to keep others out. I will shortly be going out to put a table in place for delivery drivers to leave parcels. And attaching a few helpful instructions on the other side of the gate. Last night's statement from Nicola and the legislation that is coming shortly from Westminster and Holyrood will create a framework designed to protect us all. Our role as more vulnerable oldsters, whose bodily systems are gently declining as we age, is to protect ourselves from becoming a burden on our health service, our social services. People with serious conditions, whose immune systems are relatively ineffective for whatever reason, sick babies, need to able to get to the front of the queue without people like us who can take action to avoid, or at least postpone catching the bug, getting in the way. Reports coming to me from elsewhere suggest that there is still a minority who may need something a...

Real World 1 : Virtual World 4

Thursdays would normally be interesting and busy days. First Minister's Questions are not merely an opportunity to raise important issues of the day. They are also the premier public event in Parliament's week. Yes, it can be a bit boisterous on occasion. To the extent that I generally phone my spouse to get her feedback. Often those of us sitting in "the body of the kirk" don't hear some of the detail. By contrast the microphones of whoever the protagonists are will pick up what's said with a clarity that enables those watching at home to hear what we don't. The virtual sessions of FMQs are serving their purpose very well. Albeit that shouting from the sidelines in the chamber is now translated to MSPs shouting at their computer at home. It's functional but strangely lifeless. Today we move on to a virtual question time for backbenchers. Four Cabinet Secretaries will be available for an hour of questioning. Unlike the normal sessions in t...

Windy Weather

Yesterday's walk was a little different. A forecast of wind gusts of 42 miles per hour, admittedly under a clear blue sky, suggested choosing a more sheltered route than usual. So a bit shorter, but much harder, my route took me off-road for some of the distance. Two scarves to keep the wind off my ears, and another day encased on long johns, represented something substantially less than high fashion but provided an effective barrier against the wind. A route around the edge of Reidside Moss, our local site of Special Scientific Interest, was a wee bit depressing. The state of this SSSI is short of the ideal. It should be a bog and support a diversity of wildlife. It is rather dry and looks like a scruffy bit of scrub with a near monoculture of whin, broom and grass. But it probably isn't deteriorating because its status at least prevents it being used for anything other than what is. Nature as it once was—a rare patch of land which is not obviously the product of ...

Search This Blog