Frank my list of 'advantages' aren't in any kind of order simply ten of the important things about living here - at least for me. :-D Within a few miles of where we live........ A very famous fossil was discovered in the Bathagte hills. 'Lizzie the lizard.' The discovery caused international excitement amongst archaeologists and scientists because the rocks in which Lizzie was found are 340 million years old. The oldest reptile fossil to have been discovered before this was in Canada, in rocks dating back a mere 300 million years: 40 million years younger than Lizzie. Lizzie is therefore evidence of the earliest-known reptile to have been discovered in the world. Mr. Wood (who discovered Lizzie used to have a fossil factory near here and I actually saw the famous lizard for myself - sadly no photographs were allowed. He has moved now but has a shop in Edinburgh where many other fossils he discovered in the hills are displayed and sold. Also yet another claim to fame for our area. Sir James Simpson, the pioneer of chloroform was born in the town in 1811. The medical importance of his work is still worthy of note. Some forty years later, further developments were underway - James Young was hard at work investigating the properties of oil. Pioneering Parrafin made Bathgate the home of the world's first commercially produced oil. DR our cottage is a mining cottage too but it was slate that was mined around here not gold sadly. There is a museum dedicated, in part, to James (pariffin) Young's work: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/ ... rst41.html at Millfarm - just a mile from our house. I will try, at some stage soon, to go along there and take some piccies for you all. It has one of the oldest, restored, water wheels in Scotland. I hope I'm not boring you with all this info but, as you may have gathered, I am fascinated by local history!!! Just let me know if I am and I'll finish here.
I took a walk with Ian today as it was really warm and sunny. We headed off to the restored farm at the other end of the village. Mill Farm is now actually a heritage centre with one of the oldest working water wheels in Scotland. Here are the piccies I took for you all. View of the rear of the Heritage centre. Close up of Jolly - one of the farms two Clydesdale horses. Highland cattle. A few other farm animals. The horns of these sheep are sometimes used to make shepherds crooks. You wouldn't want to get butted by a ram like this!! The steam railway that was restored to make money to keep the Heritage centre going. I found these growing in a weed patch - someone must have thrown them out of their garden. Lastly the view back towards the village. Next time I'll actually pay to go inside and take more photographs for you but it was almost closing time today so I decided to leave it until another time.
Very nice pictures of a lovely place. I guess I am sort of a throwback to an earlier time. We enjoy living in our old mining town. Although it is not nearly so elegantly done, it still looks to be in the wrong century. We do have a fellow here named Mike Conners who has restored several buildings and is still working on some. He also runs the local antique shop, so I spend some time there.
Awww Eileen why'd you have to go and post all those piccies, now you gone and got my all homesick for the our farm The train looks neat, would love to take a ride on it. The highland cattle are great as well. I really do hope you get a chance to inside someday soon and snap us all of those sweet, sweet piccies! Thanks for posting these.
Love the cattle. One of our neighbors has them and I got to see one on the day it was born. Really beautiful babies. My friend's hubby makes shepherd crooks from horns. This is called stick dressing. He's quite an artist and has won many competions with his creations. Eileen, how could we be put to sleep when you are sharing such lovley photos with us. Keep it up. I look forward to them. muddy
