{"id":981,"date":"2011-06-09T19:14:35","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T19:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/?p=981"},"modified":"2011-06-09T19:14:35","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T19:14:35","slug":"oh-for-goodness-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/?p=981","title":{"rendered":"Oh for goodness’ sake"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have occasionally had some moments in my life to look back upon the good stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight the train home to Fife was delayed for ages (ooh, at least 30 minutes) by a points failure at Dalmeny.\u00a0 So, I was forced to sit in a comfy double seat by myself,\u00a0 reading a very good book (Bearded Tit <\/em>by Rory McGrath – he knows from whence all the Latin and Greek bird names derive, and he tells a mean funny story) occasionally looking out to the gentle countryside around Turnhouse. \u00a0 Once we moved off, I\u00a0 crossed the Forth Bridge, 150 feet up in the dappled evening sunshine, looking at the traffic tootling over the road bridge, the tiny yachts noising up the behemoth tankers in the river below, and a passing helicopter which was no doubt carrying home some rich dude from a day’s golf at St Andrews.\u00a0 Eventually came home to our house in our street, in a country which at present is not subject to martial law or famine, or both.<\/p>\n

The poem below always chimes in my head when I cross the river, no surprises as to the ornithological content but it’s a reminder of a master at work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
\nClose to the sun in lonely lands,
\nRing’d with the azure world, he stands.<\/p>\n

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
\nHe watches from his mountain walls,
\nAnd like a thunderbolt he falls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Eagle<\/em>, Alfred, Lord Tennyson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have occasionally had some moments in my life to look back upon the good stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight the train home to Fife was delayed for ages (ooh, at least 30 minutes) by a points failure at Dalmeny.\u00a0 So, I was forced to sit in a comfy double seat by myself,\u00a0 reading a very good book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,7,13,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-wildlife","category-fife","category-kirsty","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}