ritchiesinedinburgh.blogspot.com
The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: November 2014
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Saturday, 22 November 2014. Exchanging Scotland for Malawi. No blog from Scotland for the next wee while, I'm afraid. However, here instead is a post from our Malawi blog: Country in crisis: children rioting. Watch this space, though. We'll be back soon. Thursday, 13 November 2014. Walking to Abercorn and recalling Philip Larkin. Having already visited the castle (see the post Blackness Castle, guarding the Firth of Forth. Ignoring the drips running down our necks, w...
ritchiesinedinburgh.blogspot.com
The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: August 2015
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Monday, 24 August 2015. The Scottish media: self-censorship or SNAFU? Oh, and the story was also not reported on the main BBC 1 news programmes, not even on Reporting Scotland. Perhaps they don't have the staff either. Nor was it reported by Channel 4. They definitely don't have the staff, not with Scottish experience anyway. As for the tabloids such as the Scottish Sun, forget about them. The support organisations concerned - non-governmental, voluntary and not-for-...
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: Edinburgh's Grassmarket: an excellent spot for a hanging
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Tuesday, 11 August 2015. Edinburgh's Grassmarket: an excellent spot for a hanging. The Grassmarket wasn't the only place where one could be executed in Edinburgh. In fact, the city hangman was somewhat spoilt for choice, what with the Tolbooth (prison) being just up the hill by St Giles' Cathedral. (Look out for the Heart of Midlothian marked on the cobblestones.). Most of the tenements around the square are nineteenth century replacements for the mediaeval originals...
ritchiesinedinburgh.blogspot.com
The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: February 2015
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Tuesday, 24 February 2015. St Helena, South Atlantic: a personal voyage of discovery. Many people, until recently including me, might find it difficult to place St Helena on a map. St Helena, South Atlantic? What sort of an address is that? How can people live in the middle of an ocean? In my grandparents' time, travel would have been much the same as today, though not, I imagine, quite as comfortable as on the modern RMS. Their journey would have been significan...
ritchiesinedinburgh.blogspot.com
The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: January 2015
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Tuesday, 13 January 2015. Exploring the west coast of Arran. We reached the west coast of Arran by driving round the east coast. Past Brodick and its castle. You could just as easily have gone the southern route, however. We drove through Corrie, though without being able to resist another photo. As you drive into Lochranza you come across the distillery. Well worth a visit, but not for us on this trip. At the furthest end of the bay is the harbour. There the fer...
ritchiesinedinburgh.blogspot.com
The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: May 2015
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Sunday, 24 May 2015. To bribe or not to bribe. The answer seems obvious, doesn't it? Well, I'll tell you a story. By the time we knew her, she had got a job as a caretaker for the flats where we lived. The hours were long, from 7 o'clock in the morning until about 8 o'clock at night, or whenever the askari. Given the circumstances, the children did well, though life was always on a knife-edge for there was never any spare money. Sickness, for example regular bout...
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: December 2014
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Friday, 26 December 2014. Exploring a prehistoric landscape: Machrie Moor Standing Stones, Arran. Or would it be just a few sad remnants of half-buried stone? Well, no, Machrie Moor does not have a single stone circle that is as impressive as those at Callanish on Lewis, or Brodgar on Orkney. However, neither have its interest for, or impact on its visitors been exaggerated. In the photograph above you can may just be able to make out three of the Moss Farm cairn's r...
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: July 2015
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Tuesday, 28 July 2015. Coronations and executions: struggling to survive in Stirling's Old Town. Living as close to a fortification as possible can help you survive - as long, that is, as at critical times you are on the right side of the portcullis. This hasn't always been straightforward. Sometimes the 'right side' could be inside, and sometimes it could be outside. It just depended. Stirling, like most castles, did not exist as an isolated stronghold. Clustere...
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond: June 2015
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The Ritchies in Edinburgh and beyond. Monday, 1 June 2015. Crying freedom in the Western Cape. Returning from St Helena via the Winelands of the Western Cape was an inspired decision. We fell in love with the landscape, lush vineyards stretching to the feet of craggy mountains, old farms nestling in between. We revelled in the warmth of the Mediterranean climate. And yet, and yet. We both agree that we will probably never return. This post explains why. Many surnames, street and house names are still Fre...
