Wild weather, litter in the Dee, and Provost Skene House

The weather has been wild, wet, and windy in Scotland with large parts of the east coast of Scotland swamped by a deluge from the heavens. The village of Brechin which is about an hour south of us was evacuated in advance of the River Esk breaching its banks on Thursday night. We’ve mostly been spared the disastrous flooding here in Aberdeen but it has been very wet and windy and the River Dee is a torrent of water.

We went out for a walk during a brief lull in the rain.

I knitted myself another jumper using the ranunculus pattern. This one only took me a week but that’s because I was off work last week and had more time to knit.

During our walk we spotted a bottle of Round Up in a little stream flowing into the Dee. How dreadful to think of that revolting stuff polluting our lovely river but it was out of reach. I had an idea that we could create some waves with large sticks to move the bottle over to the side and within reach. I found a large stick but I’d only just picked it up when a large, stocky Staffordshire Terrier with a “don’t fuck with me” look rocked up and snatched it away. I wasn’t going to fight him.

Fortunately we found some other sticks and Daniel and Elizabeth managed to move the bottle over towards the bank on the far side by throwing sticks at the bottle but how to reach it from the bank on the far side? This would require someone having to fight through a thick, thorny bramble bush down the side of a steep, slippery slope that plunged into the deep pool of water that was littered with debris and the bottle of Round Up. We were about to give up when Ben volunteered.

And what a hero he was! Miraculously he managed to pull the bottle with another long stick and grab it.

Then he took a swig.

But jokes aside – you always hear people say Round Up is totally harmless but would they drink it? I highly doubt it. It’s a poison and is toxic to fish, birds and kills insects and soil microorganisms. I have nothing but contempt for the moron who dumped this in our beautiful river. Research from the University of Birmingham found that even at regulatory approved concentrations, “the weedkiller causes embryonic development failure, significant DNA damage, and also interferes with the animals’ metabolism and gut function.” It should be banned. I’ll stop ranting.

We continued on our walk and the rain came again so we walked through the cemetery and then onto home.

Early in the week when the weather was still nice we took my mother to Provost Skene house in the city centre. It’s a 16th-century building that was nearly demolished in the 1940s but thankfully the local community saved it and we get to enjoy it today.

A painted ceiling inside the building.

And here’s Union Terrace Gardens looking up towards His Majesty’s Theatre.