Striped mug Cargill smiddy

Ruth Walker of St Andrews has sent in this poem, called Striped Mug. “It is about living in the manse at Kemback,” she says. “Saturday teatime, Dad at the table with his blue and white striped cup in his hands, listening to the Scottish sports news. He liked the stirring opening tune, the litany of names:

East Fife, Raith Rovers, Brechin City.

In the outside dark, the hens were locked up snug in their own stone outhouse.

Daintily, they had made their way across the ground, pausing

now and then, one foot held high, gently crooning before their stately progress up the ladder.

Sunday morning, my father walked over to the church.

I saw him pause, catch his breath halfway up the steep incline.

Robed and ready, he was led down the aisle by Jimmy Robertson, the beadle. Light streamed from tall windows. Trees nudged and nodded,

scratched the glass in whispered conversation.

Gently, we were led into another sphere and then brought back to our more humdrum lives, with its round

of sowing and reaping, herding flocks, paying bills.

Now Dad could return to our little world. Vegetables needed to be scrubbed, fruit stewed before we could sit down and have our meal.

Then it was off to the woods to gather more sticks to feed the hungry Rayburn stove

and keep its crackling flames alive.”

“I was interested in the recent article and photograph of Cargill Smiddy,” emails Maureen Paterson of Meikleour.

“The Redford family didn’t sell the smiddy in 1951, as my father worked there and I was born in 1954. We still lived there in 1959, when I started school.

“Unfortunately, my parents are no longer alive, so I’m not sure when the smiddy was actually sold and we moved. I have a small photograph of the smiddy and it looks different to the one which was featured in your column.

“The Redford family also owned a smiddy in Meikleour which I don’t think was sold in 1952 either.

“As you will see from my address, I haven’t moved far away from the area.”

“From time to time, there are photos in the column taken at the feeding station at Morton Lochs,” says Stewart Neilson. “These are usually excellent pictures of robin, chaffinch, coal tit, red squirrel etc. However, I don’t recall seeing a photo of a jay, so I attach one of a jay which came close to the feeders when I was there recently.”

“After a very rainy day in Dundee, the Caird Hall was looking quite photogenic,” says Eric Niven, who sent in the picture.