Sunday 15th June 2025, 6.10pm (day 5,043)
Well, I got five out of these six. But we didn’t win the quiz. Lost on a tiebreaker. Goddamit.
Movie quiz
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Morning meal
Saturday 14th June 2025, 11.05am (day 5,042)
I don’t think the woodlouse is getting the best of this encounter. I’m no psychic but whatever thoughts might be going through its little brain at the moment, probably they could be summed up by the word on the poster behind.
The last climb, for now
Friday 13th June 2025, 1.50pm (day 5,041)
As part of the contract that is Being Married to Drew, Clare occasionally gets dragged up remote moorlands, like Meikle Says Law in the Lammermuir Hills — the top of this (a County Top) being somewhere in the vague brown moorland to top right. This was the final stage back to the car. I call it the ‘last climb for now’ because I assume she might be motivated to do another one or two in the future before one of us dies…. though who knows for sure?
This is the last of the shots from the current road trip in Scotland, a passage of time which has seen it overtake Australia as the second-most depicted country on here after England.
Bunker humour
Thursday 12th June 2025, 12.35pm (day 5,040)
The tour of Scotland, or at least, the eastern-central part of that country, continued with a visit to “Scotland’s Secret Bunker“, which until 1992 or thereabouts was maintained as the home-to-be of government in Scotland were that country (and presumably the rest of the UK) ever to be taken out by a couple of dozen nuclear missiles. It says a lot for the managerial mindset that a significant amount of money was spent on building and maintaining this place, with its various dormitories, a broadcasting station, two cinemas, a canteen (still in use, for visitors), state-of-the-art air conditioning and fire protection and various Monitoring and War Rooms (“Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”). Plus a clinic, as pictured here with its touches of black humour.
That this is now open to visitors, albeit privately owned and charging a healthy price (£50 for the three of us), is some consolation but begs a natural question — where’s the current version of this? Or versions, as there were long-standing and fairly plausible rumours that another one of these sat up on Ashdown Forest in Sussex, near Crowborough where I grew up. And how much do they cost in terms of, say, nurses’ or teachers’ salaries? The place was definitely worth a visit, if only to invoke such questions in Joe’s mind.
“One day lad, all this will be yours”
Wednesday 11th June 2025, 11.50am (day 5,039)
Joe makes his first appearance on the blog since December. Why this window? Why the post title? This is Doune Castle, and some 51 years ago, in 1974, Michael Palin and Terry Jones were stood by this very window during the filming Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Doune stood in for at least four different castles in the movie. “But mother…..” “Father, lad, father.” “But father….. I don’t want to marry her, I just want to, want to…..” (The ignorant can check out the scene at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3YiPC91QUk)
3,000-foot staircase up Big Hill
Tuesday 10th June 2025, 10.00am (day 5,038)
The lump to top right is Ben More. Its Gaelic name literally means “Big Hill”, and it can join the ranks of places that have clearly been named for their physical characteristics. On the left of this shot, the start of the path up it, and it’s representative of the whole — a 3,000-foot climb, all like this. Imagine climbing one of the staircases up the Eiffel Tower, three times in succession. Do I do these things for fun? Yes, I suppose I do. (See also the other blog.)
Tayport harbour light (and place no. 500)
Monday 9th June 2025, 3.55pm (day 5,037)
My counting of different places featured on this blog — see the stats page (and marvel at its anal retentiveness) — is just as personal and subjective as everything else on here. I could, for example, have split up London and the Lake District, designations which cover areas the size of whole counties. Meanwhile, there are at least 50 shots where I’ve been unable to specify a location for one reason or another (like, being taken from aeroplanes, or the back of minibuses after waking up in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania).
However, the fact is that by this ‘official count’, Galashiels yesterday was place number 499, and so this melancholy little harbour (even more morose in the day’s constant drizzle) gives to the town of Tayport, on the other side of the estuary from Dundee, the distinction of becoming number 500. This means nothing at all in the grand scheme of things, but so what.
The Great Tapestry of Scotland
Sunday 8th June 2025, 2.30pm (day 5,036)
A stop off on the way north to Dundee. There are various routes available, things not yet seen, including the Great Tapestry, with 160 panels created collectively by over a thousand people between 2012-13. So not as old as this blog, but with more history in it, if you see what I mean. What is seen here is just the first few panels, chronologically. Having toured the country for a while it is now on permanent display in Galashiels, which makes that the 499th different place to feature on here, and number 500 should be along before the week is out, possibly tomorrow.
Mother of nine
Saturday 7th June 2025, 3.40pm (day 5,035)
I don’t think I have ever seen a brood of ducklings as large as this. Even though a couple of them are only glimpsed on this shot (there’s one right behind the duck, and another mostly concealed in the left-hand group) there were definitely nine of them. No wonder she looked somewhat frazzled: and there was an equally stressed-looking drake in the vicinity too. Still, they’re a good size: quite an achievement in fact.
Incidentally this was taken at Dunsop Bridge in the Forest of Bowland, a few yards from where, on 27/12/2011, I depicted Clare stood in the phone box that is still there, being the reputed “centre of Britain”. That was 4,911 days ago, meaning that Dunsop Bridge now takes over as the place with the longest gap between appearances on this blog. Can things get any more exciting, you ask? Hey, this particular journey has only just started.
Aquarium
Friday 6th June 2025, 9.00am (day 5,034)
OK, it’s not really an aquarium. But it’s more interesting to look at than the side of most delivery trucks, which I’m sure is the point.
Being 42 