Great news!

There was bad news and good news about Vina over the weekend! The bad news was that she was taken back into hospital again on Tuesday but the good news - great news really - was that while she was there, she had an x-ray and it showed her lung is reinflating and the tumour has shrunk quite considerably! She says she's not getting too euphoric yet as she's worried the cancer may have gone somewhere else, but we are all thinking positively in the hopes that this news is as good as it appears to be!
We are now into a 6th day of sunshine! Can't believe it! It's February, for heavens sake! The forecast is good too! Temperatures around 10 - 12C (50 - 54F) and sunshine - all week! It's pretty cold at night though!

Don't know what pictures to put in today! Well, here's one of the bridges over the river Forth - albeit taken on a warm sunny evening in the summer a couple of years ago! For those of you who don't know, the railway bridge was opened in 1890, and is famous because of its design - which is a cantilever (.... look it up. I can't explain it here!) People often talk of a never ending job as being like painting the Forth Bridge. Once you've got to the end, you have to start all over again. It's this one they mean. The road bridge, a suspension bridge, was built when I was a youngster and I remember being taken by my parents every few weeks to a view point on the road outside the town of Queensferry, to watch the progression. It opened in 1964, but is now beginning to suffer from the vastly increased amount of traffic that crosses it each day! They're even talking about a third bridge being built soon. Anyway, it's a bit of a historic day today, as after 44 years of paying a toll to cross the road bridge, from today we no longer have to!

The toll in 1964 was half a crown, 2/6, 2 shillings and sixpence in the old currency! That equates to 12 and a half pence in new money - an eighth of a pound! Latterly it cost a whole £1, but that was only if you were going north. Going south from Fife to Edinburgh cost nothing. So I suppose that was really the equivalent of a 50 pence crossing each way. That's half of £1, the same as 10/-, ten shillings in old money.

Have you read "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson? He's the same guy as wrote "Treasure Island". Well, the Hawes Inn, the inn under the bridge, featured in the book Kidnapped, and the village of Queensferry was the home of the hero's wicked uncle Ebenezer. It has been said that it is strange that the inn was built under the railway bridge, but actually the inn was there for many a long year before even railways were invented! Kidnapped is set around 1745, and I daresay the inn was old even then!

Queensferry is an interesting little town with a wonderfully historic main street. It got its name from the ferry crossing made by the Queen of Scotland, Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore, (12th century)between the capital Dunfermline and her chapel at Edinburgh Castle - the oldest building at the castle today.

Well, I had problems again trying to upload the picture so it has taken quite a chunk out of the day! Haven't got time to write any more so I'll finish off here for now.

Talk again soon!