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Rusty....the Scottish Open....I have backed B. Grace and B. Kopeka.....I see PGA tour winner Scott Stallings has a 3 month ban for taking a banned supplement....you are right, it's everywhere.

Sorry....Koepka.

Hi, Rusty!
Yes, I am sure that I would have found looking at the battle sites and war memorials very interesting - especially having read several of Lyn MacD 's books now.
I haven't as yet though read "Somme" - that is about three books off in my reading "queue"!
Maybe I should have made the effort to watch....?
Did you see any of the sites /memorials we've read about?
It's just that this Wimbledon fortnight is MY time! I don't do anything except watch the tennis! - no household chores for instance!
Everything goes on hold - we eat and I walk the dog! that's it!
Just for two weeks!
In case you haven't heard , both Roger and Andy are through, and now play each other(!) in the Semi-Final!
Whom will you support? - Andy because he's Scottish? or Roger? (because he's a brilliant player and a nice guy?)

Pigale, not sure about the lack of activity today.
I suspect it will be different tomorrow.
Yes, Bouhanni is out. I presume he was caught up in the big crash on Monday. Maybe suffering.
The riders follow instructions, so if they are sitting in the bunch it is with the blessing of their Directeur Sportif. The sponsors won't like it, as they want to see their name prominently displayed on screen.
But why it was quiet today, I do not know.

Good luck, Albie!
It is on TV tomorrow.
Rickie Fowler is my man!

Good evening, Elle!
Yes, you would have found it interesting.
It is the immensity of the war cemeteries that hit home, for me. And each one immaculately kept.
I remember reading years ago about a particular hill, (I forget exactly where or which, but it will come to me, possibly Vimy Ridge?) and anyway this hill/ trench system was taken at very great cost by the Canadians, and a very grateful France donated the piece of ground to Canada, in perpuity.
So, there is a small part of France that is forever Canada. I find things like that extraordinally moving. One day I shall tell you the story of Martin Middlebrook.

Oh, I am not fussy about Roger or Andy, Elle.
Roger is a gent, and Andy is Andy!
But, Andy is not representing his nation at Wimbledon, he is representing Andy Murray.
PS. It may be very hard to imagine, Elle, but out there, somewhere...there may be the odd Scotsman who is a nice guy!

Evening, Rusty!
Yes, I think I should have watched the background of the cycle racing - I would have been so very interested to see these places I have read about.
If anything topical comes up again, please give me a "shout" and I can switch channels!
I can get the cycling on ITV4 (which is on Freeview)
Yes, you are perfectly right( as you often are!) - it is the Vimy War Memorial of which you are thinking. It is a memorial to all the Canadians who served during the First World War.
60,000 Canadians were killed - about ten thousand (I think) of whom were killed in France, but who have no known grave.
The names of the missing men were inscribed on the memorial.
That is a heartbreaking situation - to be missing; unidentified and unburied.
I don't know who is Martin Middlebrook? I'll look forward to hearing about him!

P. S. Now let's not get this out of proportion...... Andy Murray is ONE Scotsman I don't happen to like........ just one!
I have a lot of Scots relatives, remember? I like them - and then there's you! I like you! ( although strictly speaking, you're not really Scottish...you're Irish!)

Elle, this is a short clip of a visit to the Canadian Memorial and Cemeteries at Vimy Ridge by Canadian students.
Vimy Ridge was given to Canada by France in perpuity in recognition of the sacrifice that Canada made to win and hold the ridge.
You may need a tissue!
Le Tour passed by today and we saw the great Memorial and the cemeteries.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4U4S-i6a4c

Hello, Elle, there may be highlights of Le Tour on later, but whether they would show the non-cycling bits, I don't know.
Yes, an Irish immigrant to Scotland, to try and help civilize them! So, I suppose I am a Celt!
There is not really a tale about Martin Middlebrook.
I just found him and his doings interesting.
I think, at the time, he was on holiday.
And he and Mary, his wife, went to France.
They were in the Somme area and further North, too.
He was stunned by all the cemeteries etc and went back several times to find out more. He found it very hard to take in. The sheer enormity of death and carnage along the Western Front.
Eventually, he wrote a book about it.
"The First Day on the Somme;1st July 1916".
It is close to 400 pages of the events on the opening day of the battle. I think it is my favourite book on WW1.
Very readable. Reminiscent of Lyn McDonald.
His wife, Mary, and he, also published a guide to the battlefields on the Somme.

With all this sport etc going on I have not looked at a crossword this week!
And the Scottish Open Golf is on TV from 10.00 tomorrow. And I still have not got round to buying ice cream. The young ones are abandoning me this weekend. T in the Park!

Hey, Rusty!
Thank you for the clip. All those headstones - all engraved with an individual name and no one knowing where lie the remains of their loved ones. So very, very sad.
I looked up the programme showing the highlights of the cycling - in case there was any relevant background showing - but it was on ITV4 at 7 to 8 pm., so I had already missed it. Maybe I'll catch something another day? Keep me informed.
You were saying that Martin Middlebrook found the sheer enormity of death and carnage along the Western Front very hard to take in. This is exactly what I said to you on my first reading Lyn MacD, isn't it? that I couldn't accept the extent of the loss of life and in some case the needlessness of that loss. I had no real previous idea of the immensity of it all.
I'm so glad that I'm reading the series of books.

Now for a tennis update....have you managed to watch anything?
Roger will now play Andy in the Semi-Finals - no prizes there for guessing whom I want to win!
Djokovic put out Cilic, and so will now play Wawrinka who beat Pasquet.
The latter match was brilliant - neither Wawrinka nor Gasquet deserved to lose - it was a well fought battle.
(Incidentally, it was Wawrinka who beat Novak in the final of the French Open)
All to play for.......

And you've got golf as well tomorrow? It's as well the young ones will be busy elsewhere this weekend - you won't have any free time anyway!
T in the Park - poor ospreys! What has happened to them?