A Recumbent plus some Flankers @ Daviot


In between penning a theatre review and doing some much-needed shopping at Aldi, I drove to Daviot today.


It’s a fine place Aldi. The shelves are full of humongous discounts and, in the main much of what they are selling is good value although I’d deffo’ recommend avoiding the tinned soup. A pack of Egyptian organic onions caught my eye. At 67p for half-a-kilo they bore the legend “Grown to strict organic standards using organic farming methods”. The label bears the official Soil Association logo and has the tag “Oaklands Organic Onions” strewn boldly on the front of the pack. How kind of the Nile Delta farmers to adopt such a rurally Sussex image.

As for Flashdance The Musical, the splendid review has yet to be published although I am hoping that my Voice editor will take a peep at the copy and publish soonish. It’s a sort of Cinders tale where Rosie the Riveter and Billy Elliot find some common ground. Nuff said.

I really hadn’t intended going to Daviot ever again. I’ve been there so many times before and, were it not for the lack of a fully logical digital filing system, today’s photo-trip would have been unnecessary. The truth is, I need a decent image of the stone circle complete with the frost-split recumbent and flankers for my next book. I’ve sort of done with the Romans and have even penned a final chapter on the politics of the Piper Alpha affair. But, and this is a big but, I have an awful habit of misfiling things. Socks go in the left drawer, unless they are red; in which case they go into the bottom right drawer. Pants end up in the middle drawer unless I am at Janice's, in which case they are in the top-right left hand side.
Hankies, yes I carry nose-blowing's in my right trouser pocket, go in with the socks unless they are blue. In which case they end up in the top drawer on the right along with the redundant bright-red cravat which I bought for some long forgotten wedding.

Don't laugh though. I have a very good friend who files her keys according to some splendidly personal code. The key to her shed is in the chicken. The conservatory key is on top of the upright-piano and the key to the radiator bleed-valve is in beside the pencils. And, it all works splendidly!

Today, a search of my 23k or so images turned up some fairly decent shots of Aikey Brae stone circle and some nice images of the circle over at Easter Aquhorthies. But the Loanhead of Daviot search drew a blank. On reflection, I probably saved the Daviot images as 1987654jpg or something stupidly similar and the ageing brain-cells nowadays can no longer decipher the code. I wish I had simply filed them as Daviot or Stone or Circle. But I did not. On reflection I must buy a piano and of course a chicken. At least I could look there first.

No matter. I took some new images today. Not of the brain cells of course. Just the images of the megalithic stone circle and the attendant flankers @ Daviot. All is now well and I have a cover image for the new hardback. Splendid indeed.

Duncan Harley is author of The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire

Location: Aberdeen, UK

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