A braw wee tale

 

I love this tale, which historians are unconvinced by. It is referred to in the book by Balkan Dave l have previously mentioned. Keith in the below extract from an old book  is James Francis Edward Keith  (   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Keith )   by the way

RUSSIAN SERVICE. 
During this war with Turkey a very curious incident
happened to Keith, illustrative of the " wandering Scot."
In the year 1739, when a treaty of peace was being agreed
upon between the two belligerents, the commissioners for
this purpose were Keith on the part of Russia, and the Grand
Vizier on that of Turkey. These two personages met
and carried on their negotiations by means of interpreters.
When all was concluded they rose to separate. Keith
made his bow with his hat in his hand, and the Vizier his
salaam with his turban on his head. But, when these
were over, the Vizier turned suddenly round, and, coming
up to Keith, took him by the hand, declaring in the
broadest Scotch dialect that it made him " unco happy to
meet a countryman in his exalted station." Keith, com-
pletely surprised, looked eagerly for an explanation, when
the Vizier said, " Dinna be surprised, man •, I'm o' the
same country wi' yoursel'. I min weel seein' you and yer
brither, when boys, passin'. My father, sir, was bellman
o" Kirkcaldy ."

True or false my 25mm Ottoman Turks will be commanded by a Grand Vizier who hails from Fife. Here he is resplendent in green in front of his braw command tent-

Any suggestions for his name in the Eric Knowles style and with a Scottish flavour most welcome indeed.

Sunday Monday

 

Monday was my middle daughter’s birthday. The evening saw a super family meal here.

Earlier in the day some of us went to South Queensferry. Alas this tin plate treasure was not for sale in the charity shop.

Very, very low tide indeed .

Dune bakery has lovely new premises just along from their older place. Airy, bright and with the same excellent coffee and baking.

Sunday saw me in Edinburgh for the monthly Ordinariate of OLW Mass. Watched the Edinburgh Riding of the Marches in the Royal Mile.

Interesting plaque in the church.

An old favourite the clock on the former Binns building, now restored against the blue sky on a lovely morning..

Blogger still misbehaving both trying to post photos and follow the blogs of others. Tech can be a pain and l miss the quiet enjoyable consumption of coffee and blogs to start the day. Hopefully it will sort itself out sooner than later. I try to see your updates by going through my blog list and choosing manually but it is tiresome and frustrating. Apologies if I haven’t commented in a while .

A trial post

 Difficult times with blogger currently. A post to see how many views and comments it gets.

Seen the shed this morning, had it ten years now, nothing done with it. Any suggestions? Would it make a layout in a box ? Charity Shop?

Currently reading this account of Cyprus ‘74 and finding it interesting. In my twenties l was a big reader of Evelyn Waugh’s novels. Picked up a copy of Sword of Honour trilogy twenty years ago as all my EW books had gone . Enjoyed it. Still on the shelves but l couldn’t face a big book so got this the other day. Enjoying it so far. I feel EW still has much to offer me…

Fun with flags ahead with these flags. Starting on the sheets this afternoon…

Let’s hope things settle down with blogger very soon for all of us.

 

Blogger again

 My blogger reading list is currently not updating. I am not seeing people’s recent posts? Is anyone else experiencing this? It is so frustrating as I rely on it to help me keep up with the blogs l follow.☹️

The other model railway show photos

 Here are the other photos l took at the Edinburgh Model Railway show on Saturday-

This and the next few photos are from a layout called Colinton, an area of Edinburgh l know well and grew up less than a couple of miles from.

The building on the backdrop is an iconic one and one I have known since childhood, as is the bridge.

Colinton Station . The railway is no more sadly but you can walk along where it was as it is now a footpath.

I really liked the trams and other vehicles on this Edwardian layout.

Beautiful trains too.

The figure modelling was great and told  a story well.

One young man’s creation and splendid it was too.

Finally a continental layout with excellent scenery and this fine looking train?

This one sneaked on , bridge was super as was the weathering on the loco.

That’s it, trains over for the present.

Reading and listening

 Recommended reading and listening- Balkan Dave is speaking on this podcast. 

I used to borrow this book a lot when at university.

Balan Dave is speaking about his book and warfare of the period here.

Dundreich at the show yesterday

 The highlight for me was seeing PD Hancock’s layout . I had seen some of it in January at the Glasgow Show but this being a special 75th anniversary show of the club, more was there to be enjoyed. 

In m any ways PDHancock is the model railway of Charles Grant , Donald Featherstone and perhaps HG Wells rolled into one. Enjoy the pictures then read more at the links below-

The founding charter of the railway.

Brilliant scratch building. Card l imagine.

Notice the use of some Airfix fortifications in the background.

The equestrian statue from the Sherif of Nottingham Airfix set.

Airfix’s Roman Fort l think.

https://elmrc.org.uk/p-d-hancock/

https://elmrc.org.uk/the-p-d-hancock-collection/

https://elmrc.org.uk/dundreich/