Compo
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Posts posted by Compo
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On the subject of writing; I still use the contents of this packet occasionally. 50+yrs old and still works!
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Here are two bottles of ink from my desk drawer. I use a fountain pen for birthday and Xmas cards. Bottled ink keeps for an amazing length of time.
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Looking for an ID for these two mushrooms. I think I know what they are but would like a second opinion.
1. Found in grassy clearing in a Spruce forest. [Entoloma serrulatum?]
2. Found on mossy peat beneath Spruce. [Gomphidious glutinosus?]
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Barrie, Jill and Fly2: Just noticed that the herd of deer were missing and that Dalnaha cotage apeared twice. Now corrected.....
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On the way home from Inverness on Thursday we made a detour and headed up the hill to the Fyrish Monument. It is a relelntless uphill walk of two miles each way, on a forest path but the end views are worth it.
"A story of the compassion by a rich man towards the less fortunate, seasoned by an element of vanity, lies behind a structure that dates back to a dark time in the history of the Scottish Highlands.
The Fyrish Monument was built in 1782 in Fyrish near Alness, Easter Ross, on the authorisation of Sir Hector Munro, 8th laird of Novar and a British soldier who served in India and became Commander in Chief of India from 1764-1765. Sir Hector was a native of Fyrish during a period in when local Highlanders were being driven off their land by landlords unable to make a good enough living from poor tenants. The process was known as ‘The Clearances.’ It was a time in Scottish history when the Highlands of Scotland were hostile and the land too barren to support the production of crops in sufficient quantity or quality. This left crofters and farmers unable to pay their rents and the landlords were not happy.Violence and hostility amongst the Highlanders was a common practise and some landowners burnt down crofts to force the tenants to move out so they could rent the land for grazing. The Clearances were a consequence of economic change that had a huge impact upon many lives and changed the Highland way of life forever.
Sir Hector showed compassion to his workers by extending the time that it took to build the monument. It is said that he ‘ordered’ rocks and boulders to be rolled by hand down the hillside one by one to slow the process down.
The design of the monument represents the gate of Negapatam, a port in Madras, which the General had taken for the British in 1781 after returning to India. This is an unusual monument as most are built for a specific reason but the Fyrish Monument appears to have been erected as a personal ‘trophy’ to Sir Hector by Sir Hector. It is also unusual in the way it was built. It is a natural assumption that anyone paying for labour would want it finished quickly to keep the cost down. However, Sir Hector prolonged the construction work thus having to pay his workers more. Could this have been a ‘protest’ against the harsh and barbaric treatment dished out to poor crofters by some of his fellow landowners?
That could be a very romantic way of looking at this ‘perceived’ charitable act. Sir Hector might have had other reasons for wanting to ‘prolong’ the building work. At the time any relief afforded to the starving and destitute was only provided in return for labour. It was feared that to feed people without them working would promote laziness and the construction of the monument was tasked to the local destitute." [Source: britainexplorer.com]
Looking down into the Cromarty Firth with Invergordon in the centre. Invergordon was an important base for the Home Fleet during WWI. A battelship was sunk there and sabotage was suspected but in the end it turned out to be faulty ammunition that caused the blast.
Left: Ben Wyvis (3,432ft) Right: Little Wyvis (2,503ft); seen from the monument.
The monument
Reflctions in a hillside lochan
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2 minutes ago, Beekay said:
\snip\
Imagine, living there and coming home from shopping and realise you'd forgot your fags or newspaper.
It is about 13 miles to the nearest shop, Barrie!
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Part 3. There were lots of fungal fruiting bodies to be seen on the route. Here are two photos.
Amanita muscaria (Fly agaric)
Russula. A large group of mushrooms, some edible, some not.
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The Golden hour part 2:
Dalnawhillan Lodge
Loch a'Mhuilinn
Morven and Small Mount
On the Glutt track
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Attempting to add some more photos in the hope that they remain for long enough to be viewed! I'll put them up in a couple of groups to avoid overloading the site.
Photos taken during "The Golden hour" just after dawn on Saturday morning.
Sunrise over Loch More:
Dalnaha cottage
A herd of deer, spooked by our presence:
A smiling toad
The toad attaked me!
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7 hours ago, Stuart.C said:
Try https://www.flickr.com/ for photos
I used Flickr for photos for a while but they put a limit on the number of photos one could hold on their site. Originally (When I signed up) it was unlimited. I lost a lot of photos to the change.
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I don't understant it Barrie. I can see the watermark and I didn't even put the mark there - photobucket did.
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I give up. I shall have to download and re-upload my photobucket photos to another hosting site.
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Right. It comes out on facebook with the watermark. It looks like you have to download the image first and then post it to your site. Problem is that this site wants an image url and not an ordinary file. It seems that I can post images from photobucket as a link but that also comes out with the watermark. I think it must be all about security (Gone mad).
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I'm seeing the cat with Photobucket wrtten across it. I wonder why some see it with photobucket and some without. I simply took the url from my photobucket picture and added it via "Insert other media" button. I have not come across photobucket doing this before. I shall try it on facebook and see if it comes out with or without photobucket watermark...... watch this space.
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21 hours ago, radfordred said:
I see 3 photos cat, bus stop & a clock, only the clock an hour slow
As they say: "The clock was correct at time of going to press."
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On 9/7/2019 at 6:57 PM, katyjay said:
cholla is pronounced choya.
It must be the Spanish name for the cactus. 'll' in Spanish is pronouinced 'y', hence Cholla = Choya.
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Whenever I post photos on this site they are visible to others for a day or so and then invariably, disappear. I know that others have also had problems so here's sme test pictures to see if any of the photo imaging sites that I use are better than others.
First picture is saved in Google photos:
Next is from Canon Irista:
This one is from photobucket:
And one from Flickr:
Nope....can't get a flickr photo to appear at all on this page.
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Sadly Brew, bruises don't photograph very well. I tried to tke a shot of my leg the other week. It was yellow and black from knee to ankle after an altercation with a stepladder. Alas, it doesn't look very dramatic in pixel form.
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2 hours ago, benjamin1945 said:
,just got to have one the other end now,
Been there, done it, got the tee shirt - it's not the most comfortable experience in the world, Ben.
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"The Bespoke Overcoat" was on TP last night. It won an Oscar at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). Quite rightly so; it is an excellent fim.
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On 7/17/2019 at 8:34 PM, benjamin1945 said:
Just watched a ten minute film called "Sunday in Southend in 1959"
I have that film on DVD. I watched it again last night and it brought back lots of memories of a holiday there in 1960. As a teenager I spent many weekends in Southend and at age 14 met a girl there who, 14 years later, was to become a partner of mine for a while.
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I was out in my shed cooking my chips in dripping when I remembered that I hadn't shut the greenhouse and polytunnel for the night. It was pouring with rain so I thought I'd just run up to the greenhouse and then on to the tunnel whilst my chips were cooking. As I turned the corner towards the greenhouse I ran onto a strip of wet decking, laid as a path over a particularly boggy bit of ground. The next thing I knew I was in the air like a cartoon banana slip! I hit the ground on my side with a thump and lay there for around half a minute trying to get my wits back together. I was soaking wet and not sure if I could move.....Luckily, it seems I don't have osteoporosis and a quick physical check revealed nothing more than some rather nasty aches and pains in my ribs, hip and ankle - no broken bones. I managed to get myself up and back to my chips just in time to save them from burning and then enjoyed my fish and chips with a nice cup of tea (loose leaf of course) despite my stiff bones. Today I am in some pain but I am dead tough so I will recover in a few days or so :) Are there any other daft boggers that do similar things here? Lesson learnt: Old men shouldn't charge around in semi-darkness in the rain....especially when the chips are cooking - they might burn and be wasted!
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I also know the name Rozalex. I seem to recall it from my apprentice days in the 1960s. I don't recognize the tin in the photo though.
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We've all said it: "Things aren't what they used to be." Mars bars chcnged their recipe in about 1978, chocolate in general has suffered greatly from 'Shrinkflation' and nothing seems to last these days. This morning I had been fixing the brakes on my bike and was covered in brake block dust so I reached for the SWARFEGA. In "The old days" Swarfega cleaned just about anything off your skin but this modern 'Original' Swarfega is next to useless and costs a fortune too.
When Swarfega looked like this it worked a treat:
But now that it looks like this, it is rubbish:
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Things you don't see anymore
in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !
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Garth! Now there's a blast from the past!