Spike the Cactus

Who remembers Spike the Cactus in the Duthie Park Winter Gardens, Aberdeen? Well, he's back...going to be there today 12-4pm.

After an absence of over 10 years, he's been lovingly restored and is ready to delight a new generation of kids. I suspect that there will be a lot of  "big kids" there too - there's been a Facebook group dedicated to reinstating Spike for a while now who are all going to be delighted that he's returning!
Spike has his own Facebook page...check it out and ask fit like.

My Grant ancestors

Imagine my delight when I discovered a few years ago that Charles Dickens had based his Cheeryble Brothers in Nicholas Nickelby on my 5 x Great Grandfather's (Alexander Grant) nephews - William and Daniel Grant.

There was so much on the internet about them that Alexander was sidelined while I discovered more about William and Daniel.

The brothers were born at Haugh of Elchies, near Aberlour, Speyside. Their parents were William Grant and Grace McKenzie, their siblings were James, Elizabeth, John, Mary, Isabella and Charles. Continual flooding of their land brought the family to near ruin. In 1783, at the age of 50, William Snr. decided to give up farming and try his luck in the cotton trade which was opening up in Lancashire and Yorkshire.This is a great account of their early life and subsequent fame and prosperity http://www.speyside.moray.org/Aberlour/News/cheeryblegrants.htm  The Rev W Hume Elliot wrote two books about the Cheeryble brothers, both are available to read online.

In 2008, my sister and I visited Ramsbottom - had a coffee in the Grant Arms, were allowed to look round St Andrews Church and take as many photographs as we wanted and visited the library where we were given a huge folder with clippings about the Grants to read. What a brilliant day we had!

Welcome - fit like?

Well, I've finally done it - set up a blog. I'll be using this to talk about things that are important to me. Might be my family tree and what I've discovered about my ancestors, might be things that matter to me, might be about places that I've visited in my home country (Scotland). Whatever the subject, I hope I don't bore anyone too much!