Em Splem

Kathleen Jamie Lochan (For Jean Johnstone) When all this is over I mean to travel north, by the high drove roads and cart tracks probably in June, with the gentle dog-roses flourishing beside me. I mean to find among the thousands scattered in that land a certain quiet lochan, where water lilies rise like small fat moons, and tied among the reeds, underneath a rowan, a white boat waits.

When all this is over I mean
to travel north, by the high

drove roads and cart tracks
probably in June,

with the gentle dog-roses
flourishing beside me…

—Kathleen Jamie, “Lochan”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)
#BookologyThursday #poem #poetry 💙📚
www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kath...

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

And now the full 1939 clip. It's startling seeing the contrast. My grandfather was posted not far from here at one point, so maybe he strolled through when it looked like this. Weird to think about.

#Film #History #Edinburgh

Here is the full 1938 clip. What a gorgeous space it was.

#Film #History #Edinburgh

Today we're visiting the Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh with the Scott Monument in the background. Two shots taken one year apart, but that year makes a huge difference! Left side is 1938, right is 1939, and the park has been dug up for bomb shelters!

From 16mm film

#Film #History #Edinburgh

1100 was the wall. How far back in time can you read English?

Nursing badge with St Andrew’s cross. The words ‘Registered Mental Nurse Scotland’ around the outside.

Nursing badge with red and white maltese cross and the words ‘Royal Medico Psych Association Certified Nurse’ around the edge.

Today is Mental Health Nurses’ Day. So here are just a couple of my gran’s nursing badges. She became a mental health nurse back in the 1930s when things were very different!
@rcnhistory.bsky.social
#HistNursing
#MHNursesDay

Something I loved today.

The Met Office explaining winds by portraying them as a blancmange version of The Blob.

I know someone who worked there for years. Apparently it’s consistently been one of the most asked about topics from visitors. #BringBackOurFish

This is a rubbish, click-bait headline, which is a shame because the article itself is a really interesting interview with Emin.

a met office advertisement with a cartoon cloud and sun Alt: A met office advertisement with a cartoon cloud and sun

The word of the day is "Apricity" - the warmth of the sun on a cold winter’s day ☀️

Enjoy the sunshine forecast today 😎

Those TV programmes where they show people from China etc being stopped from bringing food stuffs into Australia: how many Scots are whistling happily as they stroll past with their plain loaf and Lorne sausage and haggis and black pudding in their carry-on?

Feeling oddly smug in the 100% belief that I totally could do this job.

A photo of two terracotta plant pots on a wall both with green fronds of crocuses but lots and lots of small mushrooms sprouting out and no flowers.

When you plant crocuses and life gives you mushrooms.

@mirandakeeling.com

On a recent visit to my parents house

81yo Mum: What's this A1 thing they keep going on about?

87yo Dad: It's not A1, it's AI.

Mum: Where did you learn that?

Dad: We used to have it when I worked on a farm. The vet used to administer it

Dodgy, dodgy foreign donations to Reform laundered through dummy British-owned companies.
Non-paywall full article:
archive.ph/DPzO1

They did a sterling job at the end of a night shift, moving huge amounts of patients and thereafter dealing with them in corridors etc.

But apparently I don’t get any thanks for jokes about what the bed manager would say tomorrow.

Homicides at lowest level in nearly 50 years, ONS statistics show The 499 homicide cases in the year to September were the lowest in England and Wales since 1977.

Let's hope this positive news gets as much attention as the people who try to convince us that the UK is a murder ravaged hellscape.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It really is an awful human urge to publicise the thing that annoys you, and these arseholes know it.

Hah! I always forget that she gets called Queen now. Thank you.

Val McDermid was assigned ‘sensitivity reader’ to cut offensive language from old books Author discusses changes made to Lindsay Gordon novels from 80s and 90s to prepare for their rerelease

Apparently, Val McDermid is convening with the dead:
"The writer, who is also a national year of reading ambassador, met the Queen on Monday during the launch of a reading initiative at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh."

2024: can Europe defend itself ALONGSIDE America?

2025: can Europe defend itself WITHOUT America?

2026: can Europe defend itself AGAINST America?

"And we now have María on the line who would like to swap a Nobel Peace Prize for the presidency of Venezuela..."

Rescued a week apart. Orphaned for the same tragic reason – their mothers fell off cliffs.

Tytan the rhino and Notty the zebra have been healing together ever since. An unlikely pair who completed each other's family.

sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/o...

The Internet cable whilst my husband was in the middle of an important Teams meeting.

Every year it’s noticeably weird. It’d be fascinating to watch them being coached by this shadowy figure who, I sometimes imagine, speaks like that in real life.

on the tramway in Nantes and a pretty old woman gave her seat to a very old woman so I gave my seat to the pretty old woman then a man gave me his seat then a teenager gave a man his seat and then we all laughed, aren't people fantastic

I've got to be honest, we may as well call it a night #DuvetKnowItsChristmas

Mince pies, naartjies and Carols from King’s: it’s Christmastime.