Scotland mostly - through nsl4u

Cutting out for 40 minutes at lunchtime...walked east up river into a biting
cold easterly wind.

What did I see....well the outfall from a 'water treatment works' (WTW)
..yep the sewerage treatment plant!......Seems to be that it used to stink
right richly, but I'm guessing that the froth is some type of detergent to
counteract the foul water smells...maceration and flocculation and nae doots
detergerisation too! Anyway, seems the gulls can eek a living out of
whatever is 're-gurgitated from the bowels of the tank farm', so to speak!!
Hope you've had your tea.

Upriver decent views towards the re-generating river front...and the crane
is now a high rise restaurant...The ruddy brick building with copper top is
the grand hospital that was privately funded from I remember Middle Eastern
wealth as a private hospital...not sure what side of the fence it now sits
on (private or public sector)... the bit nearest the river is an hotel which
was to service friends and families of the patients, but is now an open
enterprise.

The grey industrial sheds in Dalmuir, are possibly some bonding for the
whisky companies (Chivas Regal?), and also might be one of the big emergency
food stores that are scattered all over the country to service
crises...(flour, sugar, tinned foodstuffs, tea, biscuits, and all the other
essentials we think we might need); I heard that vermin control in these
places depends a lot on sand lines around all the palleted stacks, so that
footprints can be found! When flour milling, we used to make 'premium
flour' which was drier than 'normal' (I recall about 9-10% moisture rather
than about 12-13% (believe it or not!) and because the wheat had to be
'drier' when it was cracked on the mills some of the husk was ground up too
causing a bit stronger 'yellowish colouring'.....It wasn't allowed to be
bleached to make it whiter (!!) so if ever we need to use it, go ahead, not
quite what we are used to but fine all the same to stop starvation....Why
'drier'? ...lasts rather longer in storage (I think ''turned over every 2
years maximum'' - re-cycled into new-milled flour streams to blend it away,
and long term stocks replaced with new.

When you are eating bread, the CBP (Chorleywood baking process) white for
example is getting on for a 65% water absorption mix, only some of which get
baked off, and since bread is sold in law by weight (large white loaf 800
grammes - illegal if less than this) it can even be mist sprayed with water
when cooling down, so that the weight is accurately controlled and also
'kept up', and of course means the oven can simply handle more throughput!
Baking needs mixing (CBP puts huge energy into the mix and batters it rather
than kneading and resting, etc), then it needs dough splitting to pan it,
then it needs baked and on the continuous batching over 'baked quickly as
possible', then into cooling ovens for speed of de-panning and handling,
then slicing an bagging..you should see it all click..it's magic industrial
processing at it's best. Squeeze some of that soft white bread (can be done
with a light bran mixed brown too of course) and, re-constitute a dough
lump...modern ways. You are paying good money for water!!

The green beacon is obviously a gas cylinder, so the charge in the tank
would keep it lit no doubt for 'weeks'...I presume it's electric now.

The old wooden ribs on the bank are the signs of a watery graveyard for
barges....do not know why or when...but I'll try to find out.
I pulled as couple of rusty nails out of some of the beams with my hands,
and interestingly, a couple of the tips were bright metal......as new as the
day forged on the blacksmith's (nail maker's) anvil.
Rusting is heady mix of wet and air......the driven nail must have been all
this while in solid wood and not exposed, so...wee tip '' brand new''.

The cormorants were on the banks and I saw this fella some way off drying
himself, readying for another dook.

Exploring new parts is really good fun.

Cheers, Denis.