A Doggy Pow Wow

Culture comes at a price, and His Lordshsip's wish to see the Viking exhibition at the Scottish Museum this morning emptied our piggy banks spectacularly.
I imagine the insurance involved in bringing so many artefacts over from Sweden was what hiked up the entrance fee, but I still think £10 a head (with concessions available) a bit high.

It appears that the Vikings have been misunderstood, in that they have been portrayed as fearsome warriors, with raiding parties (vikings) at home and to far off lands, when most of them were farmers, traders and craftsmen. The jewellery found in burial sites is delicate and beautiful.

Vikings was in the first instance the name given only to the raiders, the others were just plain old boring Norsemen.
But the most important thing to remember is, they never ever wore horned helmets..... never ever, just plain helmets. The horns bit is a myth.
Another interesting fact is that the names of their Gods gave rise to the names of the days of the week except for Monday.

So saying, with a lighter purse and a heavier brain, I've offered to brave the arctic weather to visit my friend o.m.ts. After all I consider myself to be of Viking stock while I'm sure she has more of the Mediterranean warm weather genes.

I can see that the blip of the day has nothing whatever to do with Vikings but was an early morning gathering of dog walkers which preceded a mad chasing game by the dogs, leaving the owners to blether.