Political Geography

A footnote to yesterday's post:

In last night's episode of Walking Through History Tony Robinson was following the St Cuthbert Way from Melrose to Lindisfarne.  He came to a stile in the middle of a featureless moor and drew our attention to a fingerpost which reads, "Welcome to Scotland" on one arm and "Welcome to England" on the other.

At which point he reminded us that in Cuthbert's day- roughly 1300 years ago- all the land from York in the South to Edinburgh in the North belonged to  "the mighty kingdom of Northumbria" and England and Scotland had yet to be invented.

The Sky At Night

I'm not afraid of the dark; I'll quite happily wander round the fields at night; but only so long as I don't move my eyes above the treeline. As soon as I look up at the stars (something I love to do) I start to feel uneasy. The stars are scary. Even more so the gaps between them. Look up and you're looking into Forever- and Forever is looking back.