Old coal

Look closely and you'll see the tell-tale gleam of raw coal. In the ongoing tale of fuel store clearout in readiness for the arrival more logs, i discovered a heap of more slack with lots of actual coal in the black dust. Unburnable now, of course.

100 years ago, grampa was digging this stuff out of a Fife mine before training at the Watt Institute in Edinburgh as a safety inspector. Then leaving altogether in the general strike to help look after his very sick wife.

90 mins of shovelling and bagging, wearing a single-use mask and glasses, and my face was still blackened. This makes me uneasy about these masks and COVID.