{"id":3716,"date":"2017-07-16T05:52:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T05:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/?p=3716"},"modified":"2017-07-16T05:52:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T05:52:24","slug":"summer-y","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/?p=3716","title":{"rendered":"Summer-y"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh good grief, I was sure I had posted\u00a0at least once\u00a0 in June, outwith Dad’s birthday, but I see the last one was May 28th.\u00a0\u00a0 Poor old BTW always suffers the most appalling neglect in the summer, it’s shocking behaviour and someone somewhere needs a strongly worded email. \u00a0 In our defence I see that June encompassed the following activities: West Fife show with Rieko, Royal Highland Show, finding a spot to take pictures of HMS Queen Elizabeth*, at least three peregrinations** around Vane Farm, a trip to Beadnell with Team Discovery, three visits to the wonderful new museum and galleries in Dunfermline, and some catch ups with old chums, all the while working on new songs for the band and oh then there’s the day jobs.\u00a0 Photos below include the two statues resident in the gardens of (deep breath) Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries, they are of Tam O’Shanter and Souter Johnnie.\u00a0 And yes, we already know of interactions with traffic cones.\u00a0\u00a0 The picture of the heron was an attempt to capture the beautiful yellow and blue flowers in the wetland meadow, mayhap they would show up better after some gentle photo massage.<\/p>\n

We had a brilliant 9th anniversary visit to Beadnell – the girls won the quiz!! – and were the skies ever so big<\/a> as viewed from Alnwick beach?\u00a0 Our 10th is obviously going to be a no holds barred, take no prisoners 72 hours of complete anarchic mayhem, I’m sure that’s what Roger said.<\/p>\n

Some happy news of family and friends of which more anon, but huge and hearty congratulations to Emily Sanderson and Christopher White, who graduated from St. Andrew’s and\u00a0 Edinburgh Universities respectively.<\/p>\n

Lastly, and most importantly, Paul’s astronomy club<\/a> was written up in the Courier, with no mistakes or factual inaccuracies and some ace pictures.\u00a0 The photos were taken in March of this year.<\/p>\n

Researching the subject of neglect, I found this rather lovely poem, and what do you know, it comes down to birds in the end after all.<\/p>\n

Neglect<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is the scent of apple boughs smoking<\/p>\n

in the woodstove what I will remember<\/p>\n

of the Red Delicious I brought down, ashamed<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

that I could not convince its limbs to render fruit?<\/p>\n

Too much neglect will do that, skew the sap’s<\/p>\n

passage, blacken leaves, dry the bark and heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I should have lopped the dead limbs early<\/p>\n

and watched each branch with a goshawk’s eye,<\/p>\n

patching with medicinal pitch, offering water,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

compost and mulch, but I was too enchanted<\/p>\n

by pear saplings, flowers and the pasture,<\/p>\n

too callow to believe that death’s inevitable<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

for any living being unloved, untended.<\/p>\n

What remains is this armload of applewood<\/p>\n

now feeding the stove’s smolder. Splendor<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ripens a final time in the firebox, a scarlet<\/p>\n

harvest headed, by dawn, to embers.<\/p>\n

Two decades of shade and blossoms – tarts<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and cider, bees dazzled by the pollen,<\/p>\n

spare elegance in ice – but what goes is gone.<\/p>\n

Smoke is all, through this lesson in winter<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

regret, I’ve been given to remember.<\/p>\n

Smoke, and Red Delicious apples redder<\/p>\n

than a passing cardinal’s crest or cinders.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014R. T. Smith<\/p>\n

Years ago I read or heard on the radio a spooky story about burning an apple tree, anyone recall that?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Team Discovery at Beadnell Towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Bowbridge Alpacas at West Fife Show, Kelty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Heavy horses, West Fife show<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dunfermline Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Dunfermline Museum gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cook family with Paul, Gillman hide, RSPB Loch Leven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Swallow, Vane Farm courtyard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
HMS QE, from Limekilns harbour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Spooky wifey, Beadnell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Grey heron from Gillman hide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lapwing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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*a frankly massive aircraft carrier built in Rosyth.<\/p>\n

** peregrination from the Latin peregrinus<\/em>, meaning foreign, and also obviously<\/em> that’s the root of the peregrine falcon, “young birds being captured in flight rather than taken from the nest”.\u00a0\u00a0 Eh, thanks Chambers Concise Dictionary<\/em>, is that one of those hidden jokes you lexicographers put into your oeuvres? \u00a0 Because if it is, I don’t get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh good grief, I was sure I had posted\u00a0at least once\u00a0 in June, outwith Dad’s birthday, but I see the last one was May 28th.\u00a0\u00a0 Poor old BTW always suffers the most appalling neglect in the summer, it’s shocking behaviour and someone somewhere needs a strongly worded email. \u00a0 In our defence I see that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,28,29,30,12,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-beadnell","category-birds-wildlife","category-family","category-friends","category-galleries","category-poetry","category-rspb-loch-leven-at-vane-farm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}