The rich rural scenery of North Fife, Scotland, provides variety from the historic city of St Andrews and the quaint harbours of the East Neuk of Fife. A Royal Palace in Falkland, a Folk Museum in Ceres, a National Trust Mansion House near Cupar, Balmerino Abbey, Lindores Abbey, Newburgh, Dunbog, Glenduckie, Creich, Birkhill, Ballinbreich, Abdie, Upper Flisk and more in beautiful North East Fife. Also the occasional wander.
Tayview 17th March. I was just about to stop and record this view when this truck came into view.
Old Ford flatbed chugging uphill, probably a model T circa 1925 in the livery of Fishers, an acid green quite a change from the original, Ford having said that one could have any colour as long as it was black.
A more up to date mode of transport. Fishers Services (Cupar) Ltd is a private company categorized under Laundries and located in Cupar, United Kingdom. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 16,260,472 and employs a staff of approximately 150. Companies like Fishers Services (Cupar) Ltd offer: Laundry Clothes, Cleaning And Laundry Services, Laundry Business, Pick Up Laundry Services and Drop Off Laundry Services.
Making it up the brae, it disappears round the bend. The Model T engine was produced continuously from September 27, 1908 through August 4, 1941, exactly 12,000 days. This makes it one of the longest engines in series production, especially considering that the specifications remained mostly unchanged for this entire duration. Its production run for the U.S. consumer market for passenger cars and pickups was shorter, being the 19 years' production run of the Model T itself for that market (1908 to 1927). But the engine continued to be produced and sold to various consumer, industrial, military, and marine markets throughout the world until 1941.
Manufacturer Ford Motor Company Production 1908-1941 Displacement 177 cu in (2896 cc) (2.9 L) Cylinder bore 3¾ inches (95.2 mm) Piston stroke 4 inches (101.6 mm) Valvetrain side Cooling system water Power output 20 hp (15 kW) That's nearly 3 Litre, such an engine size produces 10 times the horse power these days.
A bright sunny day after a dull and cold start with a lingering mist. What a joy to see the Pinkfoot Geese, everyone I met was happy and full of the joys of spring, twill all change back tomorrow as more rain is forecast. Och well.
Tayview 16th March.
Alert and quite nervous, heads up and ready to fly.
Pinkfoot geese alarmed by my presence take off.
The pinkfoot geese quickly back again and settling down to forage the short grass.
Ballinbreich Castle on the River Tay, long shadows falling over the field from Higham woods.
There is so much going on in the world, cataclismic change, geological, climate and political, this new publication by Tim Flannery puts it into another perspective.
Here on Earth: A new beginning. Tim Flannery is here to offer us a change of perspective. And he is here to inspire us. He invites us to consider again our place on earth, what it really means to be alive.
Here on Earth is a revolutionary dual biography of the planet and of our species. Flannery reimagines the history of earth, from its earliest origins as a chaotic ball of elemental gases to the teeming landscape we currently call home. It is a remarkable story. How did life first emerge here? What forces have shaped it? Why did humans come to dominate? And when did we start to have an impact? More importantly, how has this changed us as a species?
The awesome hand of nature has never been better portrayed than in this book. Nor, remarkably, the transformative power of ideas. From the most intense competition for survival, cooperation has emerged. The challenge we now face is to sustain our fragile hold on life.
Our fate is in our own hands. But first we have to realise who we are.
RRP: £14.99 Price: £9.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. Food for thought. Here on Earth: A new beginning
More and more I experience those CRAFT moments, (can't remember a flipping thing) and today I am prompted to explore a remedy by an article in the Observer newspaper. Ed Cooke, memory coach and a world memory championship grandmaster points the way. Below is a publication that can assist in the process of improvement.
How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 52 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills [Paperback] A practical year-long programme to bring the benefits of a better memory to one and all.
Few would disagree that improving our memories can enrich our lives in countless little ways – from ensuring that we remember birthdays, anniversaries and appointments, to having impressive facts and figures always at our fingertips; and from recalling names and faces to being able to speak in public without notes. This book is an expert course in memory enhancement, organized in 52 key lessons, complete with self testing. Dominic O'Brien offers us tried and tested strategies and tips that will expand your mental capacities at a realistic but impressive rate to make your memory bigger, better and sharper, week by week.
RRP: £5.99 Price: £4.49 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery.
Awoke this morning to this, last week when the toads emerged I thought winter was away. The sayings are, "February fill dyke" they are full. "March,in like a lion and out like a lamb" It is rather extreme the now so maybe April showers will come our way bringing flowers that ...... It's all a wee bit piffling compared to the quakes and tsunamis happening in New Zealand and Japan. I am in awe at the power of our climate and evolution of the earth, we are impermanent dwellers, fragile, dependant yet abusive and rapacious of the earth resources. We live on the edge, I imagine we will reach tipping point and for millions, even billions that will be the end.
Stupa at Samye Ling. The Samye Ling Victory Stupa for World Peace
The first authentic Stupa in Britain was consecrated in Scotland on August 3rd 2000 on Dharmachakra Day by Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche. It had been planned to mark the New Millenium and to celebrate the 60th Birthday of Akong Tulku Rinpoche, the founder and Tulku of Samye Ling Monastery on the Scottish Borders. Constructed, filled and decorated according to ancient lineage instructions, it was dedicated to Healing the Environment and overcoming obstacles to World Peace.
A Stupa (or 'Cho-ten' - Tibetan for 'basis of offerings') is a 2,500 year old spiritual technology introduced and taught by Buddha Sakyamuni to help transform and purify pollution and imbalance. The measurements of the outer form have to be extremely precise and the inner contents specific and properly placed and consecrated. Much of the building process demands that those involved if not ordained should maintain vows of ethical conduct and for some parts of the process repeat prayers continuously. All the specific instructions were observed. Fulfilling the instructions creates an energy field that purifies and balances the internal and external five elements that compose the universe. These are Earth, Fire, Air, Water and Space.
A BRIDGE FOR UNDERSTANDING
The Stupa Project is inspired by and run under the guidance of Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, the founder of Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre in Scotland. Akong Rinpoche is a Doctor of Tibetan medicine and a meditation master and tulku of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is one of the few Tibetan teachers who has permission from the Chinese government to travel within areas of China where, through ROKPA charity, he helps with the education and living conditions of some of the least materially well-off people on this planet. Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche is also a founder of many dharma centres and charity projects throughout Europe and Africa as well as the Holy Island Interfaith Centre just off the West coast of Scotland. He has worked closely for many years with Western psychologists and therapists so he is well placed to act as a bridge for the understanding of diverse groups.
THE INNER AMITABHA SHRINE
The inner shrine is open to visitors during the weekends. It can be used for private meditation and also offers space for the remains and ashes of those who wish to be laid to rest either within it or in the prayer wheel house. A high lama visits regularly to consecrate ashes placed in the Stupa during that year and conduct a blessing ceremony.
For more information about Buddhist funeral ceremonies and the Ashes Project please email Marilyn Harris on mh@sashworks.co.uk
Nagarjuna Statue at Samye Ling Tibetan Centre.
Nagarjuna stands second only to the Buddha in his importance in Buddhist thought. The concept of "emptiness (shunyata)" became the central ontological concept in Mahayana Buddhism thanks to his effort. Not only did he found the Madhyamaka tradition in India, understanding his philosophy is needed to understand the Zen tradition and the Dalai Lama's Tibetan tradition. Included here are translations from the Sanskrit of his most important philosophical works into plain English, so that the general educated public interested in Buddhism or philosophy can understand his thought. Also included are separate commentaries and a bibliography of further readings. The works presented here collectively constitute what the Tibetans call Nagarjuna's "analytic corpus." Translated from the original Sanskrit are the Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way (the Mula-madhyamaka-karikas), Overturning the Objections (the Vigraha- vyavartani) with Nagarjuna's own commentary, and the philosophical portions of the Jewel Garland of Advice (the Ratnavali). Three works that are no longer extant in Sanskrit are summarized here: Seventy Verses on Emptiness (Shunyata-saptati-karikas), Sixty Verses on Argument (Yukti-shashtikas), and Pulverizing the Categories (Vaidalya-prakarana).
Eskdalemuir Seismological Recording Station 2011 on Saturday last, it forms part of Eskdalemuir Observatory which lies 2 miles south. Operatives, surrounded by sheep wait for the earth to move. The station is operated by Güralp Systems Ltd on behalf of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Blacknest Seismological Group, which analyses the recordings from seismometers, including Eskdalemuir, as part of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) international monitoring system. The station monitors and records seismological signals arriving at the site, together with their time of arrival. This data is then analysed in conjunction with similar records obtained from similar stations around the world, and used to determine the source of those signals. Unlike naturally occurring seismological events, those originating from artificial sources, such as nuclear explosions, have a different pattern, or signature, and can be identified, together their general point of origin. Seismologists are able to discriminate between earthquakes and the large number of other signals such as quarry blasts, explosions, sonic booms, and collapses, which are recorded in addition to earthquakes.
The Eskdalemuir Seismological Recording Station is located in southern Scotland and has been in operation since 1962, making it the longest-operating steerable seismic array in the world. It is situated on the eastern side of the Langholm-Innerleithen road (B709) about 18 miles north of Langholm and two miles north of the Eskdalemuir meteorological observatory. It comprises a recording laboratory, a seismological vault and an array of seismometers installed in pits spaced over an area 10 km square. The seismological vault is about a quarter of a mile east south east of the laboratory, and the array lies to the east in the form of a cross, its centre, about 1½ miles from the laboratory. The latitude of the point of intersection of the two lines of the array is 55° 20' north and the longitude is 03° 09½' west. - Quotation from Güralp Systems web site.
The group's seismologists solved the mystery of the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk. Claims had been made by the Russians that the initial damage to the submarine had been caused by a collision with a Royal Navy submarine. By analysing the recordings from seismometers, including the one operated at Eskdalemuir, the AWE team was able to prove that there was no collision. Instead there had been a small initial explosion, followed by a much larger one.
First Toad of the year, it's been a long winter and only now are my wee friends beginning to show themselves. I have noticed over the years that toads remain in the same territory, even if you move them, they come back. This wee chap hangs around the house entrance. The breeding pond lies about 15 metres away and soon it will be heaving with copulating toads, croaking away soon to be followed by the frogs and newts. When this happens you know it's spring.
Losar Greetings Card by Lama Thubten Kunsal, from a monastery in Derge, Eastern Tibet.
The Tibetan New Year of 2011 bounds in with the Female Iron Hare or Rabbit, which is said to be a particularly joyful and prosperous year ahead. Calligraphy by Tashi Mannox
The yearly Mahakala practice culminates with a ceremonial 'cham' dance to symbolically chase out and repel the demons of the old year, called the black hat dance. The main character of the dance is usually performed by a high Lama who is particularly adapt at the visualization of the sadhana called dorje lopon.
Gyaltsap Rimpoche as Dorje Lopon.
Steam cooked Mo Mos. Losar Celebration. Each New year of the Tibetan and Chinese Calendar for the last thirty plus I have Celebrated in the traditional way. Always at any festive moment people eat. We do our practice, resolve to be happy and wish all auspiciousness for the benefit of all sentient beings. Anyway, traditionally Tibetans cook Mo mos, steamed, lamb or beef filled, spiced pastry wraps, very tasty morsels. I was shown the process in Rumtek Monastery Sikkim in the late nineteen seventies and have cooked them each year since, many times actually because they are so nice. You would be amazed to how many you could eat. Often eaten with a thin meat broth sprinkled with fresh coriander.
Tayview 17th March. I was just about to stop and record this view when this truck came into view.
Old Ford flatbed chugging uphill, probably a model T circa 1925 in the livery of Fishers, an acid green quite a change from the original, Ford having said that one could have any colour as long as it was black.
A more up to date mode of transport.
Making it up the brae, it disappears round the bend.
