JUST TESTING

On the History of Edinburgh's Botanic Cottage

                                                                             

                                     BOTANIC COTTAGE, EDINBURGH

                                    BOTANIC COTTAGE RE-OPENS


                                     SIMPSON AND BROWN ARCHITECTS



Last week I attended the official re-opening of the Botanic Cottage in its new location in the Royal Botanic gardens, with members of a reading group organised by the Scottish Poetry Library. Unfortunately, we arrived just in time to see Princess Anne disappearing behind a hedge, However, the architects were much lauded during the reception. I got into conversation with an important looking young architect who I took to be William Kay, the man who I knew had completed most of the historical research about the (Sir John Hope) Cottage in its previous location between Leith Walk and Hopetoun Crescent Gardens. However, it turned out to a case of mistaken identity, William Kay is now a private consultant, and he doesn't seem to have been given much credit at all for his magnificent accomplishments.

     This evening, I met up with the real William Kay one more time in one of my favourite restaurants, He is most impressive in professional terms, He had for example, determined that

                                                  JOHN WILLIAMSON,

the head gardener at the old Royal Botanics was MURDERED in 1780. Furthermore, William's ancestor John Kay was the artist of the only known painting of the first Regius Keeper John Hope, and John Williamson also appeared in the painting

                                      CELEBRATING HOPE---see page 8 of THE BOTANICS

Without William Kay's detailed historical researches, which he'd described to me at length during previous years, the new version of the Botanic Cottage wouldn't look anything like it does today

   

ON THE PRAGUE SPRING OF 1968

                                                                             

                                         WHAT SOCIALISM, WHAT HUMAN FACE?


                                                                   SOLIDARITY p.d.f


                           When the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, I was hitch-hiking in Germany with my girl-friend, and taking a ride between Munich and Stuttgart when the news came through on the car radio,

                                                                   LIBCOM.ORG

                    A website containing numerous anarchist and liberation left articles, A very rich resource. See, for example The SNP, Scottish Nationalism and the Class struggle: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

INVASION THROUGH THE WITTGENSTEIN WORMHOLE

                                                                               

     Here is an excerpt from my novel 'THE GRAND OLIGARCHS OF QINSATORIX' which has been published on

                                                     KINDLE EDITION

     A fortnight later, a Spanish interloping beam diverted twenty-four drone-triangles and created a window in the magnetosphere through which it was relatively safe for the Icarian spacecraft to travel. The technicians in the space station in Castile placed bets and stayed glued to their monitors, all eager to see what happened next.

General Spunk Spitfire picked his yellowy green gnashers as he took off from Gatwick in the first of twelve mega-ships. A total of 60,000 well-seasoned troops were travelling with the space fleet. After completing a couple of orbits, the fleet headed for the magnetosphere.

Stan, the affable Apollo gorilla pilot, grinned. “We're approaching the window of divine opportunity, Sir.”

Spitfire smiled. “Top ho'!”

Stan growled, “Whoops!”

A stray drone-triangle took off the tail of the third mega-ship in line.

In Castile, the Spanish technicians laughed their heads off when they saw the troubled spacecraft burst into blue and red flames.

Stan grimaced.

“We've lost one, Sir,” he said. as the mega-ship hurtled in a fireball through the exosphere.

“There's eleven left,” snorted Spitfire. “Put your foot on the peddle!”

To Spunk's utter relief, there was no further incident of note for fully seventeen space hours. His legs were beginning to cramp when he saw a bright blue patch beyond Bellatrix Minora.

“There she blows!” bellowed Stan.

Spitfire guffawed. “Way to go! It's the Shepherdess of Orion.”

Thirty seconds later, the space fleet entered the not-so-black hole and streamed smoothly through the Wittgenstein Wormhole before emerging into the psychedelic razzmatazz that was the Universe of Transfiguration.

“This is where the dreams in your head merge with the dreams in the stars,” said Spitfire, waxing lyrical.

Stan twisted the pilot stick. “I didn't know we were going on that sort of trip.”

When Spunk Spitfire saw Sigma-Psi looming bright green behind the Scorpion Sunstar he asked Stan to guide the fleet closer, to take a peek. To his surprise, he saw a shining, silver space station orbiting the Planet of the Dragoks. Upon closer scrutiny, he determined that the space station was Castellos.

They've undoubtedly seen us too, realized Spitfire, and that could scupper the devious plans that I've been keeping bottled in the back of my post-Neanderthal skull.

But Spitfire looked back while his fleet was soaring through the Mousy Way. Castellos had come out of orbit, and was heading in the general direction of the Kronecker-Delta planets.

Thank goodness for that, enthused Spitfire. Now I can now put plan “Strike 'Em Hot” into operation, and humpty-dumpty Caleb won't know the fuck. I'll destroy his ghastly siblings and take the throne of Qinsatorix by right of conquest. King Emperor Spunkius the First, here we come! My poor, dear father would've been so proud.

THOMAS'S PRIMARY SCHOOL CHRISTMAS BIKER RUN

                                                                                 

Probably about 100 little primary 1s and 2s all singing merry Christmas to us yesterday.
The atmosphere was so lovely!
Kids had huge smiles and were so well behaved!

This was PirnieHall Primary School in Pilton.
The toy run was done by Saltire Suzuki and Alba Customs.
10 bikes consisting of Harley Davidsons, Kawasaki, Victory, and Yamaha took part.
The run went from Saltire Biker Village aka Gasoline Alley at Chesser, zigzagging across town to Pilton.

Afterward, we retreated back to Gasoline Alley where hot soup and bacon rolls were waiting

                                                                            

                                                                              

                                                                  

Thomas Leonard: My books on Amazon

                                                                           

                                                                  KINDLE EDITION

                                                        MY BOOKS ON AMAZON


                                                                         

CALL FOR KINDLE REVIEWERS for my recently published novel: The Grand Oligarchs of Qinsatorix

CALL FOR KINDLE REVIEWERS for my recently published novel: The Grand Oligarchs of Qinsatorix

                                                                        

                                                                                  

                                                                         

  My novel 'THE GRAND OLIGARCHS OF QINSATORIX' by Thomas Leonard is now published  and available on Kindle at a price of $2.99 a copy.  Happy Reading!

      Could my friends on Facebook and other members of my group Facebook page Mental Health Discussions Edinburgh possibly consider reviewing my book for Kindle?

     Mental health conditions and treatments, Eugenics programs, ADHD, psychopathy, sexual abuse, and the evils of MK Ultra are among the many socio-political issues which I address,
             

Please click on KINDLE LINK to learn more

                                                                   AUTHOR'S NOTES

      This is a politically satirical, science fiction extravaganza set in the future on another planet. Many pressing social issues of the current era are addressed.

       The violent and Chaucerian content is intended to represent the decadence of our oligarchies. While it is for the broad-minded, it is not for the faint hearted. All characters are completely fictitious and any similarity with any real person, whether dead or alive, is entirely coincidental.

      The 'Cupidian marriage' first discussed in Chapter 4 is somewhat similar in concept to the interspecies relationships on Mars described by Robert A. Heinlein in his novel Strangers in a Strange Land. A brief reference is made in Chapter 6 to the mystical character Cthulhu (pronounced Kuh Thu Lu), who appears in H.P.Lovecraft's short story The Call of Cthulhu.

      Several members of the Edinburgh All-Comers Writers Club have helped me develop my writing style. My literary assistant Jonathan Stone has helped me in numerous ways in the writing of this novel, and Scott Forster has provided me with invaluable advice concerning many socio-political issues. Thanks also to Julie McGarvey, James L.S. Carter, Amanda Armstrong, Lindsay Oliver and Neil Chue Hong for their ongoing help and encouragement,

      Thomas Tallis and “Professor Heinrich Heisinger” have provided me with a great deal of technical advice concerning atmospheric layers, types of orbit, electromagnetic impulses, quantum theory, astrophysics, and the sealing of the worm hole. Thanks, finally, to Arthur Chapman for advising me about various passages in Revelations.