any old iron

I had a dry and quiet night sleeping out in the wood under the silver birch trees, with stars twinkling between their leaves.

D went to his yoga class at Keir Mill this morning and I drove him there because I wanted to walk along the Scaur Water to Penpont and back along the road. I also wanted to see the WW1 memorial plaque on the wall of Keir village hall as two of my relatives are on it and I've been doing a bit of research on them. They were brothers - my great grandfather's nephews. One died in Palestine and the other in France, both in 1917, aged 21 and 24. What was particularly shocking was that both of them had previously been wounded and invalided back to the UK for treatment (one of them had even lost an eye) only to be sent back too their deaths.

Keir Mill is also known for being the place where Kirkpatrick macMillan, a local blacksmith, built  the world's first pedal-driven bicycle (See extra).

Along the river path their were loads of blackberries and I looked to see if there was any suitable litter lying around, a plastic bag or whatever, to collect them in. Remarkably I saw not a single piece of litter on my whole walk. Except this old piece of ironwork propped up against a tree. Can you guess what it is?

You can see the whole thing in my second extra if you're stumped for an answer. It's an ancient drag harrow, used to break up the soil behind a tractor (or horse). It's quite possible that Kirkpatrick Macmillan made that, too..

Luke slept for 19 hours straight and is now busy packing. I'm taking him to Edinburgh in the morning :-(