Newburgh highland Games

There's nothing like beating the drum.

Newburgh ladies in charge of refreshments for the judges.

St Andrews First Aid team at the ready, happy but not knowing when they're needed.

Cycle races, a favourite at Newburgh Highland Games.





The winner celebrates.

The winner with trophy.

The Last lap, a touch of wheels and they're down.

To the rescue.

St Andrews First Aiders at rest after a job well done.

Newburgh Community police having a relaxed days duty keeping us all in order.

Dunbog's got Talent.

Dunbog's got Talent. An end of term show where all pupils participated, following the TV's Got Talent formula. This was the happy encore to the winning colaboration of four primary 7 girls. It was a tremendous night for all. All pupils gain in confidence, self esteem and benefit greatly from the experience. Relaxed and happy, what else is needed in preparation for High School and Life. There were many quite extraordinary presentations. Dunbog is a brilliant wee Scottish School.

George Cooke 1907

George Cooke was a caricatures artist who drew Edwardian music hall performers for the Grand Theatre of Varieties, in Hanley Worcestershire. He compiled them in a series of albums. This maybe the case but today I uncovered an original which backed a Japanese woodcut of an earlier date. 40 years ago I purchased hundreds of frames from antique shops for use of framing artworks of my own production and other works which I had an aesthetic appreciation. Anyway, having refound it I'm happy to offer it for sale to any interested party. Who the depicted people are, I don't know but the work is signed 1907. I have since been informed that the depicted people are "The Griffiths Brothers" A cleaned print reproduction can be supplied if you so wish.

This is the Japanese woodcut that covered the above. The artist is unknown to me, I have scanned the image and reproduce it as an giclee print on heavywieght art paper of archive quality.

Late Spring Flowers June 16th

Low water at Newburgh North Fife June 16th. This view was about an hour later than absolute low tide, the rise and fall being 3.8 metres. My eyes were mostly on the roadside flowers but it's hard to ignore the River Tay.

Some of my garden is much like a meadow with a variety of wild spring flower incomers.

Marguerites amid hedge parsley.

Buttercups.

Comfrey, very prolific which we use as a plant feed, composted or fermented.

Pink Poppy, these poppies self seed coming up sometimes white, red and pink.

Along the way into Newburgh the roadside is hedged with wild roses, pink, white and red.









At the end of my drive to Newburgh I noticed this wonderful wasp on the windscreen wiper. I think it's a wood wasp.

Scottish Lamb

Scottish Lamb here on a hillside near Auchtermuchty North Fife. Lamb is one of my favourite meats, below is a Channel4 published recipe from Gordon Ramsay's F Word and associated book.

Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite.

This rosemary and garlic infused take on a roast lamb recipe comes straight from the F Word oven
Ingredients

* 4 rumps of lamb
* 1 tin of anchovies, drained
* 4 sprigs rosemary, approx 2 inch long plus extra for roasting
* 3- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
* 1½ tablespooons balsamic vinegar
* 1-2 large teaspoons grain mustard
* ½ lemon, juice only
* Olive oil
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the chantenay carrots:

* 500g chantenay carrots, peeled/scrubbed and topped
* 1-2 tablespoons clear honey
* Few knobs of butter

For the crushed peas and broad beans:

* 300g shelled peas, or 600g unshelled
* 100g shelled and hulled broad beans, or 1.5kg unshelled
* 2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
* Knobs of butter

Method: How to make herb studded rump of lamb

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6.

2. Use a sharp knife to make an incision right the way through each lamb rump and then use your finger to open it up a little. Use a sharp knife to score the fat in a criss cross pattern.

3. Lay 3-4 anchovy fillets, slightly overlapping each other, on the chopping board. Place a sprig of rosemary on top and gently roll up the anchovy fillets to encase the rosemary and form a neat cigar shape. Repeat with the other sprigs of rosemary. Insert the rosemary wraps into the incisions in the lamb and follow with a few slices of the garlic.

4. Season the stuffed rumps making sure to rub the salt well into the scored fat. Heat some olive oil in a hot pan and sear the lamb rumps on all sides, fat side first. Pour a little olive oil into the bottom of a baking tray, scatter in a few extra sprigs of rosemary, three or four anchovy fillets and any leftover garlic. Remove the lamb from the sauté pan and transfer to the baking tray sitting the rumps on top of the herbs. Pour any cooking juices over the lamb and bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes until just cooked.

5. Once the lamb is cooked, remove from the baking tray and allow to rest.

6. Drain the fat from baking tray and pour the remaining cooking juices into a jug. Place the hot baking tray over a medium to high heat and deglaze the pan with the vinegar and add a few fresh pinches of rosemary. Add the mustard and 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, whisk together. Squeeze in the fresh lemon juice and finally pour in any resting juices from the lamb. Give the vinaigrette a final whisk and then strain into the jug of reserved cooking juices. Mix thoroughly and spoon a little of the vinaigrette onto the centre of the serving plates.

7. Carve each stuffed rump into approximately five thick slices and serve with an extra spoonful of the vinaigrette around and over the dish.

8.Blanch the carrots in a pan of boiling water for 5-6 mins, then remove. Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a large saute pan. When the oil is hot, throw in the carrots and toss them around the pan to coat in the oil. Add the honey and some seasoning. Cook over a moderate heat, turning the carrots frequently for 2 mins. Stir through a few knobs of butter at the end to glaze.

9.Boil the broad beans for two minutes, rinse in cold water, peel off the grey-green skin to reveal the tender bright green beans. Steam the peas and blanched broad beans for 3-4min until tender, then add the mint and butter and season to taste, lightly crush the mixture in the pan.

A selection of healthy recipes from the F Word are available in Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite.
RRP: £20.00
Price: £10.38
To Buy Now. Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite

Red and White Campion Flowers

Late Spring and just about everywhere here in North Fife the landscape, hedgerows, gardens and roadside is in flower. Wonderful.

White campion which hybridises frequently with the red, giving pink.



Red Campion

Flora Britannica
The Definitive New Guide to Britain's Wild Flowers, Plants and Trees
Covering the native and naturalized wild plants of England, Scotland and Wales, this reference guide to plants and flowers contains over 500 colour images.

This landmark guide offers a comprehensive survey of the native and naturalized wild plants of England, Scotland, and Wales. Useful and delightful, it covers 1,000 species, including trees and ferns. More than a definitive work of natural history, however, it is also a virtual encyclopedia of living folklore, recording the role of wild plants in social life, the arts, customs, and landscapes. The information has been supplied by the people themselves, creating a unique national record of the popular culture, domestic uses, and social meanings of Britain's wild plants. Splendidly written by naturalist Richard Mabey and illustrated with 500 fine color photographs, "Flora Britannica" is an elegant testimony to the continuing relationship between nature and man.

RRP: £40.00
Price: £24.49 To Buy. Flora Britannica

12345678

12345678. I own and drive a Honda Accord Aerodeck Estate Auto, it's one of the most reliable and pleasant motors I've ever driven. The mileometre equates as many hours spent behind the wheel being aware, aware even of the numbers as they tumble round. It's amazing what can sometimes occupy the mind, this observance happened today.

Assegai Flag North Fife

This flag now flies from the lay-by Newburgh North Fife yesterday occupied by The Black Earnside Tartan Army. I can only assume it's all about the World Football Cup just underway in South Africa.
Football, a formalised combat, actual weapons for Scotland in hostilities would have been the Claymore.
The average claymore ran about 140 cm (55") in overall length, with a 13" (33 cm) grip, 42" (107 cm) blade, and a weight of approximately 5.5 lb (2.5 kg). Ultimately, the longswords generally descend from the high medieval hand-and-half 'great swords', such as subtype XIIIa, using the Oakeshott typology. Fairly uniform in style, the sword was set with a wheel pommel often capped by a crescent-shaped nut and a guard with straight, down-sloping arms ending in quatrefoils and langets running down the center of the blade from the guard. Another common style of two-handed claymore (though lesser known today) was the "clamshell hilted" claymore. It had a crossguard that consisted of two downward-curving arms and two large, round, concave plates that protected the foregrip. It was so named because the round guards resembled an open clam.

For Africa, The Assegai was the close combat weapon.
The use of various types of the assegai was spread all over Africa and it was the most common weapon there. The Zulu and other Nguni tribes of South Africa were renowned for their use of the assegai. Shaka of the Zulu invented a shorter-style assegai which had a larger, broader blade. This weapon was known as the iklwa or ixwa – for the sound that was heard as it was withdrawn from the victim's wound – and was used as a stabbing weapon during mêlée attacks. The traditional assegai was not discarded but was used for a softening range attack on enemy formations before closing in for close quarters battle with the iklwa. This tactical combination originated during Shaka's military reforms.
How the pros and cons of the respective Scottish and African weapons would work out is hard to know. Better to kick a ball about.


It is 1913 and ex-soldier turned professional big game hunter, Leon Courtney, is in British East Africa guiding rich and powerful men from America and Europe on safaris in the Masai tribe territories. One of his clients, German industrialist Count Otto Von Meerbach, has a company which builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser’s burgeoning army. But Leon had not bargained for falling passionately in love with Eva, the Count’s beautiful and enigmatic mistress.

Just prior to the outbreak of World War I, Leon is recruited by his uncle, Penrod Ballantyne, Commander of the British Forces in East Africa , to gather information from Von Meerbach. He stumbles on a plot against the British involving the disenchanted survivors of the Boer War, but it is only when Eva and Von Meerbach return to Africa that Leon finds out who and what is really behind the conspiracy.
RRP: £18.99
Price: £10.73
To Buy Now. Assegai

BlackEarnside Tartan Army A.G.M.

Each year William Wallace is remembered for his victory over the English by the BlackEarnside Tartan Army. A plaque of commemoration has been installed in this lay-by on the Barony Road from Newburgh.
An apt venue for the A.G.M.

On this Site.

The Black Earnside Tartan Army. Here assembled on the site of the Battle in 1298

One of the battles of the War of Independance took place in the neighbourhood of Lindores Abbey, within ..the 'Forest of Irnsyde'.. Later historians find difficulty in reconciling the date assigned... (12 June, 1298) with other facts in Wallace's history; but Blair, (Wallace's chaplain )... distinctly states that on the 12 June 1298, the guardian of the kingdom (Wallace) vanquished the English... at Ironside..., with their general... Aylmer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke.(Information from a Book 'Relations... Arnaldi Blair, capellani',) The battle is described by Blind Harry, the minstrel. The name of Wallace's Den... immemorially attached to a deep gully on the farm of Parkhill... affords presumptive evidence of the site of the battle.
(There is no good historical evidence for this battle, which apparently rests only on the authority of Blair, and Blind Harry (Henry the Minstrel).)
A Laing 1876.



The meeting concludes.

The Maid of The Tay Boat trip from Newburgh

The Maid of The Tay Boat trip from Newburgh. Maybe this is the beginning of many such trips from Newburgh which has a long association with seafaring, ships and boats. In the 19th and early 20th century Newburgh was a very busy port, goods were transfered from large sea-going vessels to smaller for upstream movement to Perth. Goods from around Newburgh, notably stone from Clatchard Quarry transported by water far and wide.

Getting ready to board.

Food and victuals for the voyage.

Just casting off with a wave goodbye.

Heading off upstream to Perth.



And off they go into a choppy venture up the River Tay to The Friarton Bridge.



The Friarton Bridge is a road bridge across the Firth of Tay on the southeastern outskirts of Perth, Scotland, approximately 25 miles upstream of the Tay Road Bridge. The bridge forms part of the eastern spur of the M90 between junctions 10 (Craigend) and 11 (Broxden), the most northerly motorway junction in the UK. It also forms part of the important east coast road corridor from Edinburgh through to Dundee and Aberdeen.

The bridge spans the river, a row of electricity pylons, the Dundee-Perth railway line, a number of warehouses and the A85 high above the surrounding plain.

It is a two-lane dual carriageway; unusually for a motorway (although not unusually for the M90) neither carriageway has a hard shoulder. When it was built in 1978, it was designated as the M85 motorway. When the A85 from the north end of the bridge to Dundee was renumbered in the early 1990s to A90 through to Dundee, the motorway's designation changed to M90 to provide a continuous route number from Edinburgh through to Fraserburgh.

If you wish to hire the Maid of the Tay:- contact Dennis Beattie 01337 840480

The Artists' Workshop at The Steeple North Fife

The Steeple in the heart of Newburgh, 67 The High Street.

Today and tomorrow there is an exhibition of Artworks by The Artists' Workshop based in North Fife. Comprising of the artists below.
Each pursue an independent line of artistic development, meet on Friday mornings in Luthrie village hall to practice, for mutual encouragement and constructive criticism. Different visiting tutors are invited from time to time to broaden the outlook. Prospective members at any stage of development are always welcome. Contact: Jay on 01337 842704 or Paul on 01337 840606. ( leave a message.)
72 Artsworks on display at affordable prices.

Alison Stewart. Watercolour, Across the Tay.

Erica Heeley, Oil painting, Highland view.

Jay Birkinshaw with her Butterfly Silk Painting.

Enigma in mixed media by Ian Maxwell.

Marion Benzies. water colour, Tayport at Dusk.

Paul Dodman, snow in the Park, Acrylic.