La Tempete

wow, what a day, the gales weren't nearly as bad, or as prolonged, as Tempete Klaus in SW France in January 2008 but this is Scotland in late May! - the Edinburgh spring holiday, Victoria Day.

Captured this on Leamington Walk on Bruntsfield Links this evening on my way to the George Square Theatre (I'd already got absolutely soaked taking the cat to the vet this morning.) The JCB was pulling down the branch that had already been wrenched off by the wind to make it safe. More pics here. While I was taking it another photographer (a blipper?) told me about the crushed Micra that 2 3 other blippers managed to capture micra 1, micra 2, micra 3. Luckily no-one was hurt. However, the ash tree in the back green, that blocks our light and which we would like to fell, is still standing. C'est la vie!

It was almost another tempete towards the end of the debate on 'Sectarianism Myth or Reality?' at the university. We could have had a whole day on that topic, not just 2 hours. I was struck by
a) what a Central belt focus the debate took. Aberdeen and NE Scotland seem a million miles away in this context.
b) how people can use history to prove anything. I was glad that Owen Dudley Edwards, an Irish Catholic, challenged another Irish Catholic panellist's views on the politics and history of Ulster.
c) the debate about religious schools. People generalise from their own experience and mine, in Aberdeen, is completely different from that in Edinburgh and Glasgow
d) and is, as someone said as we were leaving, the character of NL really the elephant in the room?

It certainly got the old grey cells going.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, it's a 6 hour walk along the Water of Leith and of course we have another ash cloud looming - last time I was stuck delayed 9 days in California. I'm leaving for KL in 9 days, fingers crossed.