Titus the Dog

Me, tea and biscuits! This Sunday, 2pm, Robert Burns Centre

Tor - men - tor?

November 28, 1872, Scottish science writer and polymath Mary Somerville died #OTD. Her “Physical Geography” (1848) was the first textbook on the topic in English and her most popular work 🌐
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2014/06/10/m...

A photograph of three people taking a selfie at a Ukrainian-Scottish Burns Night organised with Dumfries Museum.

Last Day of #Museum30 - Why Museums?
When people stop you in the street to tell you how much their children have been talking about their recent visit, or the waiter in a cafe tells you how much they enjoyed last night's talk, or Ukrainian families tell you've made them feel part of the community...

a medieval drawing of a dog standing upright wearing a hood and holding a bottle. beside him is a cat laying in bed wearing what looks like a nightcap. both have distraught expressions on their faces.

doctor dog treating sick cat, 15th century

Due to foreseen circumstances, in this case the weather, we have had to postpone Sunday's Book Week Scotland event with JoAnne McKay

We hope to reschedule in the not too distant future and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Wicked Problems and Reasons for Hope. Robert Burns Centre, Dumfries on Sunday, 24 November, 2pm. I will be there in person. Jane Goodall will not

Desert Racers Demolish Art Carved by Ancient People in Chile Preservationists say governments at all levels have failed to prevent authorized and illegal off-road racers from driving through giant figures of animals, humans and objects.

Off-road vehicles racing through Chile's Atacama Desert have destroyed ancient geoglyphs over decades of competitions. Authorities have been unable to stop them. The images of the damage are striking.

My investigation for @nytimes.com

www.nytimes.com/2024/09/24/s...

Promo

@dgplacenames.bsky.social Are you in on this? Via Twitter
Ragna’s Islands is a research project built around a new translation of The Saga of the Earls of Orkney (Orkneyinga Saga) by @JudithJesch for publication in 2025. In the build up to publication we are researching the place-names of Orkney.

Do you know the story of the wet sand?

https://maps.nls.uk/estates/rec/5431 Plan of part of the lands in the parish of Middlebie belonging to His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, 1821

🌲1️⃣1️⃣🎁 CAUL ‘a dam or weir to divert water in a river’
The most well-known caul in D&G is at the Sands in Dumfries, but you find can caul(d)s marked on the map across Dumfriesshire. For example, the second picture (from an 1821 estate map) shows a cauld on the Mein Water, just below Birrens Roman >>>

Icicles descending from cast iron fountain bowls and gilded dolphins

Icicles on cast iron urns

Icicles descending from gilded cherubs holding crocodiles

Welcome to winter #DumfriesFountain

Human skeleton in foetal position with a small ring of human bone lying to the side

Day 30 of #Museum30
Why museums?
Because they are the holders of skeleton keys that unlock our pasts.
Bronze Age cist burial from Mainsriddle: a cloak fastening ring made from a human backbone was found beside this man, and sherds from a beaker at his feet

Just a truly spectacular pair of leopard-print breeches for your Friday night.

Even the dog is bemused (c1770) #18c

A line of lizard-like footprints across a slab of red sandstone

Day 22 of #Museum30 Time
A fleeting moment frozen for 225 million years - the Permian footprints of Chelichnus duncani. In the late 1820s the Rev Henry Duncan (of Savings Bank fame) became interested in the fossil footprints that were being found on slabs of sandstone from local quarries.

Pressed metal plaque featuring Britannia and a Lion and legend, "He died for freedom and honour".

Pressed metal plaque featuring Britannia and a Lion and legend, "He died for freedom and honour".

Metal button decorated with a lion and a thistle

Candlesnuffer featuring a winged lion

Day 20 of #Museum30
Pride
Framed memorial plaques commemorating brothers Robert and James Hume Duncan of the 7th Cameron Highlanders, who were both killed in action during the First World War; button from the uniform of the Caledonian Railway Company; a candlesnuffer.

Best savoury puddings in the world

I have just lost my mind at Step 1

Contemporary painting of a historical male head with slogan “Ned Ludd was right”

Day 18 of #Museum30
Last 12 months
Increasingly feeling so…

A blond wood money box in the form of a mantlepiece clock.  On the front there is a printed clock face featuring Roman numerals.

Day 17 of #Museum30
Hands
Painted ones. A money box in the form of a mantlepiece clock.  On the front there is a printed clock face featuring Roman numerals.  W & A Smith of Mauchline, Ayrshire developed the manufacture of transfer printed treen, or wooden ware. Very popular as gifts and souvenirs!

At least the boys will get to live with Lee

Strip of woven carpet: it has no pile

Close-up of patterned woven carpet in shades of red, blue, dull green and beige

Day 16 of #Museum30
Technology
The loom is one of the oldest technologies still in use. Here's my favourite ever woven thing - the Crawick Mill Carpet Company's "Imperial" grade carpeting; famed for its durability and exported worldwide from a hamlet near Sanquhar. Woven in 27" strips. 19th c.

Sandstone slab with carved lettering, “Basalt bedrock below”.

Work in progress…

Plaid woollen stocking in heather colours

Day 15 of Museum30
Frame
Handframed stocking from J A Robertson & Sons, founded in 1773. In 1851 the firm exhibited a sample of hand framed hosiery at the Great Exhibition in London. A similar example was shown at the Festival of Britain exhibition a century later, in 1951. As worn by Queen Mary