Church Bells Ring, Are You Listening
“My dear Sir, do not think that I blaspheme when I tell you that your great London, as compared to Dun-Edin, ‘mine own romantic town’, is as prose compared to poetry, or as a great rumbling, rambling, heavy Epic compared to a Lyric, brief, bright, clear, and vital as a flash of lightning.”
We attended the 9:30 service at St Johns Scottish Episcopal Church today (Nov 27). Sadly, it was nothing like the service we attended last week at St Giles Cathedral. As we left the service, the neighboring Parish Church of St Cuthbert was tolling their bells (Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) is the patron saint of Northumbria). Here is a video with the bells tolling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VrG_1sfKxI
Outside St Cuthbert is the statue to Bum the Dog.
We were pleasantly surprised to read that Bum is from San Diego! In 1886, a stowaway half-St. Bernard, half-Spaniel jumped off a ship in San Diego and proceeded to make friends with everyone he met—quickly becoming known as "Bum." He was a free spirit who belonged to no one, but was loved by everyone—earning the lovable mutt the official title of "town dog." All the town folk attended to Bum’s needs. The Chinese butchers fed him well, he slept on people’s front porches, and the local doctors met his medical needs (he had his front leg amputated from being hit by a train in a fight with another dog on the tracks). When San Diego issued its first dog license, an image of Bum adorned it. Bum became San Diego’s first and only town dog. A statue of his likeness sits (lies, actually)—along with a replica of Greyfriars Bobby—in the William Heath Davis House Park in the Gaslamp Quarter. Pretty cool!
The Ross Fountain in the foreground and St Cuthbert (and Bum) to the left. We attended St John’s, which is the cathedral to the right of St Cuthbert.
Dude, do you know if this is where they shot GOT?
We spent the afternoon exploring The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Here are a few pictures from the day: Above a small grove of giant sequoia planted in honor of John Muir.
What we didn’t know before we started planning this trip was that Muir’s family emigrated from Scotland to the USA when he was 11 years old. (As an avid lover of Yosemite, my ignorance on the subject is embarrassing! 😳) We plan to visit his hometown of Dunbar next year.
Pretty Pink Peony
Pretty white…uh…flower.
Another beautiful “flower.” (Hey, it’s not like every single plant was labeled and we just didn't take note. 😊 )
We’ll end this post with two pieces of deeply sage advice, as found on the toilet doors inside Gladstone’s Land: Above: talk about pre-treating a stain.
Helen Keller was born in 1880 damn it, how did she not hear about this?!
