Hugh MacDiarmid's Memorial ...

... on Whita Hill, above Langholm.  A ride out on the Speed Twin to Longtown, Langholm and over Whita Hill to Newcastleton and, inevitably, The Olive Tree.  A perfect autumn day ...

Perfect
(On the Western Seaboard of South Uist)
(Los muertos abren los ojos a los quc viven)

I found a pigeon's skull on the machair,
All the bones pure white and dry, and chalky,
But perfect,
Without a crack or a flaw anywhere


At the back, rising out of the beak,
Were twin domes like bubbles of thin bone,
Almost transparent, where the brain had been
That fixed the tilt of the wings.

Hugh MacDiarmid

And, playing on Radio Sandhoe today: Dads In The Park - Into the Iris