As the nights are drawing in and the misty mornings are covered with a dusting of frost, most of us are enjoying passing the wintery nights by curling up by the fire with a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. The last thing we want to do is venture off into even colder climes, chasing an uncertain goal in an unknown land.
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But for David H. Jones, watermill specialist, that was exactly what he did. His search for the legendary Norse mills of the Faroe Islands took him across the country to the barren, windswept northern-most isles of Scotland and the remote western Highlands.
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With his intrepid voyage involving four trains, a bus, a tram, at least three planes, a trip on a trawler and a problematic language barrier, did David Jones ever make it to find his much-desired Norse Mills? Read the blog, ‘By Trawler from Aberdeen’, to find out!
As many of you know, in the Archive we have every single edition of the Northwestern Miller printed since 1924. Amongst the advertisements for flour and milling reports from across the country, is a small jokes section in every edition called ‘Grist of Grins’. Whilst some of the jokes made us chuckle, some have most definitely not aged well, showing how much our humour has changed over the years! For the next few Gems eNewsletters, we’ll share some of the best corkers with you.
“The frail old lady lived on the second floor of a rooming house. One day she fell downstairs and broke a leg. The doctor put it in a cast, and warned her not to walk up or down stairs. After several months of slow healing, the doctor removed the cast.
“There, now!” beamed the doctor, proudly.
“Can I climb the stairs now?” asked the old lady.
“Certainly,” he replied. “That’s good,” she chortled. “I’m sick and tired of climbing up and down that danged drain pipe!”