Highland Mary & Seagull

This is not the blip I intended.

As my blips this week seem to have been poetry oreintated, I thought that today I would , after my meetings in Dunoon , get a picture of the statue of Hignland Mary - Mary Campbell - who was one of the great loves of Robert Burns' life and who was born (and died prematurely) in the town.

The story of the two of them and the "what ifs" is intriguing and the poetry that resulted is passionate and eloquent. Who could not be moved by these lines alone?

YE banks and braes and streams around
The castle o' Montgomery,
Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie!
There simmer first unfauld her robes,
And there the langest tarry;
For there I took the last fareweel
O' my sweet Highland Mary.

How sweetly bloom'd the gay green birk,
How rich the hawthorn's blossom,
As underneath their fragrant shade
I clasp'd her to my bosom!
The golden hours on angel wings
Flew o'er me and my dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Wi' monie a vow and lock'd embrace
Our parting was fu' tender;
And, pledging aft to meet again,
We tore oursels asunder;
But oh! fell Death's untimely frost,
That nipt my flower sae early!
Now green 's the sod, and cauld 's the clay,
That wraps my Highland Mary!

O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kiss'd sae fondly!
And closed for aye the sparkling glance
That dwelt on me sae kindly!

And mouldering now in silent dust
That heart that lo'ed me dearly!
But still within my bosom's core
Shall live my Highland Mary.

Yet when I came to take the picture of the statue, which stands in the Castle Gardens looking out to sea , there was a seagull on her head. And nothing I could do could shift it. I shouted and gestured to no avail at all. So eventually I decided to show her, seagull and all. A realistic blip, if not necessarily the most reverent !