Coil

The woods are full of these beautiful fiddleheads, in all their styles and stages. The dog and I had another random wander along the Calder and across what was obviously a dismantled railway embankment - but when I came home and looked at some old maps for the railway’s route ( National Library of Scotland map collections, free and wonderful) I was a bit unnerved to see the ‘Mineshaft’ ‘Old Diggings ‘ and ‘Pits’ lettered carefully, all along our path. Not being a Lanarkshire native, I’ll never get used to the way people casually stride over grass-covered slag heaps, laugh at the undermining cracks on their houses ( ‘This place is riddled wi tunnels’) or point at their lovely gardens saying ‘Aye there was a shaft just about there - they capped it though - we’re pretty sure they did.’