big10mom

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Snowy Scottish Highlands from the International Space station, but better - NASA photo with geology

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On February 20th 1304 a small Scots army under William Wallace and Sir Simon Fraser were defeated at Happrew, near Stobo.

More of a skirmish than a battle, an English led force discovered the guerrilla band of Wallace and Fraser, and the a coming together occurred. It resulted in a defeat for the Scots, but they weren’t routed, and the two leaders on the Scottish side managed to steal away.

There is no real information about the course of the battle, who first attacked whom and what formations were employed on either side. Said to be among the men in the English led troops was Robert the Bruce and this does fit in with what side he is thought to have been on at the time.  There are mentions of the battle in some of the chronicles f the time, but Blind Harry author of The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, never wrote about it.

The numbers involved in some battles are often exaggerated but not so with this one, wiki has the Scots at between 50 and 500 and the English, led by Sir John Segrave at in the hundreds, while the English troops seem about right Wallace and Fraser’s men would have been lucky to have numbered maybe any more than 100, Wallace was the most hunted man in Scotland, he was involved in a guerrilla warfare campaign, a large number of men would have been easier to track.

We all know about Wallace’s fate but few of you will even know about Simon Fraser, so to fill out the post a wee bit here are some more details.

Fraser was captured by Longshanks army during the defeat at Dunbar in 1296, his land was forfeited and he was made to fight in the English army at Flanders in 1297, this was not unusual at the time, John Comyn and as I said Bruce also fought for Edward I, anyway he earned his freedom and his land and title was restored in 1299, he was made keeper of Selkirk Forest and fought on the English side again in 1300 at the Siege of Carlaverock Castle.

History has him as changing sides sometime in 1301, he went on along with John Comyn to rout the English at The Battle of Roslin in 1303.

By 1306 he was fighting alongside The Bruce at the Battle of Methven when Bruce barely escaped with his life. Fraser was captured in 1306 at a subsequent engagement at Kirkencliff near Stirling and sent to London, where he was hanged, drawn, and quartered in September 1306. His head was impaled on a spike on London Bridge, along with William Wallace

[big10mom]

Good Morning from Scotland.

Rather than my usual morning post I have decided to open up today without a “sunrise pic”, instead I have put this post together in honour of those who lost their lives on that fateful day in Glencoe.

At around 5 am on February 13th 1692 the Massacre of Glencoe began………. If you cast your mind back to January 5th when I posted about Alistair McIain of Glencoe - head of a sept of Clan Donald finally signing the Oath of Allegiance, although being given the runaround by officials he thought he had made sure the clan were obeying the orders handed down from King William, and that would be an end to the matter…..

I then followed it up on February 1st, when Government troops arrived in Glencoe and requested to be billeted in the village, the age old traditional highland hospitality saw the troops housed in many of the crofts, their commander Glenlyon, himself was billeted in McIain’s own house, they were fed and treated as part of the family for almost two weeks,  all that was to change on that fateful morning 228 years ago.after the King ordered Captain Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon to attack his hosts and 

“put all to the sword under seventy”. 

Instructing that the attack be carried out at 5 am, the order added: 

“This is by the Kings special command, for the good & safety of the Country, that these miscreants be cutt off root and branch”.

To give a wee bit more background, the man who orchestrated the whole thing was John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, he more or less controlled Scotland, and with the help of  the Earl of Breadlebane, known as slippery John, they conspired to make McIain’s oath null and void. Now many have tried to excuse the Campbells for theree treachery, and I shall come to that in a minute, but there is no doubting Breadlebane, aka John Campbell and 1st Duke of Argyll, Archibald Campbell at the very least could have stopped the terrible events before they began by validating McLain’s oath instead Breadlebane encouraged the position that the pledge was irregular and gave the opportunity to open up Clan Campbell to seek revenge on the MacDonalds.

Other historians have disregarded this. Whoever was pulling the strings, Dalrymple had found his target - and could barely contain his delight.  He added in to the letter he had been writing at the time: 

“Just now, my Lord Argyll tells me that Glencoe hath not taken the oaths, at which I rejoice. It’s a great work of charity to be exact in rooting out the damnable sept, the worst in all the Highlands.”

So the background certainly lays the planning of the massacre with the Campbells, but some accounts exist that a number of Campbell’s tried to warn the MacDonald’s of an impending horror and urged them to flee. Fugitives were helped at Castle Stalker, a safe place for Clan Campbell, according to tradition.

Muster rolls also show that Campbell’s made up a minority the government-backed troops dispatched to Glencoe, a public outcry led to a parliamentary commission which found events to be a “murder under trust” with Dalrymple then forced to resign.

But it wasn’t long before he was back in government.By 1700 his reputation had been rehabilitated. He was appointed as a member of the Privy Council of Scotland and lobbied hard for the Act of Union in 1707.

It is said from around that time, that people started to refer to a new name for the nine of diamonds, The Curse of Scotland, Dalrymple’s family crest resembles the playing card.

The orders stated that Glenlyon received  stated

“You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under seventy.You are to have special care that the old fox (McLain) and his sons do upon no account escape your hands. You are to secure all the avenues that no man escape.”

McIain was killed by Lieutenant John Lindsay and Ensign John Lundie, though his wife and sons managed to escape through the glen. Two officers, Lieutenants Francis Farquhar, and Gilbert Kennedy refused to take part and broke their swords in protest. Despite these hesitations, Campbell’s men killed 38 MacDonalds and put their villages to the torch. Those MacDonalds who survived were forced to flee the glen and an additional 40 died from exposure. As news of the massacre spread across Britain, an outcry rose against the king. While sources are unclear as to whether William knew the full extent of the orders he signed, he quickly moved to have the matter investigated. Appointing a commission of inquiry in early 1695, William awaited their findings. Completed June 25, 1695, the commission’s report declared that the attack was murder, but exonerated the king stating that his instructions regarding repercussions did not extend to the killings. 

The majority of the blame was placed on Dalrymple; however, he was never punished for his role in the affair. In the wake of the report, the Scottish Parliament requested an address to the king to be drawn up calling for the punishment of the conspirators and suggesting compensation to surviving MacDonalds. Neither occurred, though the MacDonalds of Glencoe were permitted to return to their lands where they lived in poverty due to the loss of their property in the attack.

Glencoe Massacre is remembered with annual ceremony in commemoration of the treacherous events of February 13, 1692. Local residents from Glencoe and Ballachulish are usually  joined by several visitors from around Scotland and overseas, including the United States and other countries where the Scottish Diaspora reside.

[big10mom]

I made some “Advice From Nature” bookmarks

Follow Obvious Plant on Facebook | Instagram

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New Year’s Eve and crowds never thrilled me, and I’ve never even celebrated in Times Square when I lived in New York City. People are already camped out there. The Scots, though, who embedded themselves in my teen psyche, have made celebrating a 12/31 Hogmanay there a bucket list item. Until then, I’ll share my favorite version of my beloved Auld Lang Syne, written by Rabbie Burns, and sung by Mairi Campbell. For those who celebrate, or not...I’ll be thinking of you, of those we love, and of those who’ve passed. I’ll raise a glass at 12:00 am EST, and wish you all a year of peace, prosperity, great health, and love...or some combo of those. I’ll consider myself blessed. ❤️🥂. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x5KWTlXkGlM

[big10mom]

We recognise Scots as one of the three historical indigenous languages of Scotland, along with Gaelic and English

[big10mom]

“After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: if anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately. Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu-biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—she stopped crying. She thought our flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late. Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother until we got on the plane and would ride next to her—Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out, of course, they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—non-alcoholic—and the two little girls from our flight, one African American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade, and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.”

[big10mom]

Some pics from yesterdays Independence Rally in Glasgow.

[big10mom]

Love this place. We stayed near here in an Airbnb and hiked in Dollar Glen. Its so beautiful.

Good Morning from Scotland

Sunrise over Dollar Glen, Clackmannanshire. 

[big10mom]

One of these words means “For Fuck Sake” Can you find it? LOL

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Val di Funes - Landscape Photography Workshop - Dolomiti, Italy 🇮🇹 📸(by Andrea Livieri)

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“In 1984, when Ruth Coker Burks was 25 and a young mother living in Arkansas, she would often visit a hospital to care for a friend with cancer.

During one visit, Ruth noticed the nurses would draw straws, afraid to go into one room, its door sealed by a big red bag. She asked why and the nurses told her the patient had AIDS.

On a repeat visit, and seeing the big red bag on the door, Ruth decided to disregard the warnings and sneaked into the room.

In the bed was a skeletal young man, who told Ruth he wanted to see his mother before he died. She left the room and told the nurses, who said, "Honey, his mother’s not coming. He’s been here six weeks. Nobody’s coming!”

Ruth called his mother anyway, who refused to come visit her son, who she described as a "sinner" and already dead to her, and that she wouldn't even claim his body when he died.

“I went back in his room and when I walked in, he said, "Oh, momma. I knew you’d come", and then he lifted his hand. And what was I going to do? So I took his hand. I said, "I’m here, honey. I’m here”, Ruth later recounted.

Ruth pulled a chair to his bedside, talked to him

and held his hand until he died 13 hours later.

After finally finding a funeral home that would his body, and paying for the cremation out of her own savings, Ruth buried his ashes on her family's large plot.

After this first encounter, Ruth cared for other patients. She would take them to appointments, obtain medications, apply for assistance, and even kept supplies of AIDS medications on hand, as some pharmacies would not carry them.

Ruth’s work soon became well known in the city and she received financial assistance from gay bars, "They would twirl up a drag show on Saturday night and here'd come the money. That's how we'd buy medicine, that's how we'd pay rent. If it hadn't been for the drag queens, I don't know what we would have done", Ruth said.

Over the next 30 years, Ruth cared for over 1,000 people and buried more than 40 on her family's plot most of whom were gay men whose families would not claim their ashes.

For this, Ruth has been nicknamed the 'Cemetery Angel'.”— by Ra-Ey Saley

[big10mom]

Good morning from Scotland

Sunrise over Ben Vorlich and Loch Tay.

[big10mom]

I don’t think I’ve seen an answer to the question of how close or far apart the things happening today (”send her back”, detention centers etc) are to the nazis quite as good or thorough as this answer on quora

[big10mom]

Save The Bees

Friendly reminder that eating honey actually helps honeybees

A common misconception is that beekeepers abuse and “overwork” the bees to get a steady supply of honey and other “hive products”, but this is not true.

There is almost no evidence to suggest that human harvesting of honey, beewax, etc. is contributing to the decline of the bee population.

Supporting your local beekeepers actual helps bee populations, because if they can’t turn a profit on their goods they won’t be able to get the supplies necessary to keep their hives healthy.

Also, keep in mind that beekeepers do not starve their bees by taking honey off the comb. They take the excess that will go to waste if not harvested.

(here is a pic of a bee, for your viewing pleasure)

[big10mom]

Good Morning from Scotland.

Sunrise behind Schiehallion by Tim Haynes Via Flickr: Foreground rocks, at the outflow of the Annat Burn, still lightly covered with the night’s fall of snow, cool blue in the shadows; across Loch Rannoch, the sun rises in a blast of gold behind the iconic triangular shape of Schiehallion. Prints and things are available from the website: Rannoch Sunrise.

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