1. Morning. A nice smile for the visitors, Mr Munguin said.2. How many kinds of sweet flowers grow in a Bulgarian country garden?3. Munguin’s security here, keeping an eye on you all.4. And I’m the backup.5. What are these? Prize of 1 North Korean Won for the correct answer.6. The garlic is starting to flower properly in Spinky Den.7. Noway.8. Baku, Azerbaijan. The Crescent Hotel.9. You can never have too many Robins, says Munguin (so it must be true).10. Can I be Munguin’s Security when I’m a big dog?12. Hello. Any nuts about, I mean apart from the Tories and that cat man that wanted to be an MSP?13. You can double your prize money (2 North Korean Won or Two Wons, if you like) if you guess correctly the purpose of this piece of kit.14. Jacko and Gypsy, unlikely best buddies given the difference in size.15. Another Bulgarian orphan who found a home…Ziggy.16. I don’t know where it is, but my goodness, it’s spectacular.17. I can see Munguin sitting there taking his ease.18. Sometimes Munguin’s Republic would put you to sleep.19. I spotted this tree while walking a week or so ago… absolutely beauty.20. OK. Time’s up now. Move along and let the next group of socially distanced visitors in. Leave your tips for Munguin in the usual box… and no North Korean Won!
Thanks to: Claire, John, RS, and for this bonus pic, which I just found in my inbox, to AndiMac. It brought a tear to Munguin’s and my eyes.
That didn’t take long, and well done Sandy on reaching the right conclusion. They are indeed floats for fishing nets from the pre-plastic days and polystyrene floats or whatever is used now. In my Hebridean boyhood they were very common finds for beachcombers and just about every house had a few of them dotted around.
The two pictured here somehow survived and for a long time were oranments in my late prents’ house. They’ve since moved to Dubai and now Bulgaria – far travelled from their original Minch workplace or maybe the Atlantic fishing grounds. They’d certainly have a story to tell. As for your won win… that’s a Munguin offer, so you’ll have to direct your claim to The Towers. Enjoy the wee bowl of kimchi it will buy you!
Lovely stuff. My guess for the clay/terracotta contraption is that it’s for planting herbs though what it was originally for, I dinnae ken. Lovely picture of Ziggy – those Bulgarian pets are real posers though, which gives very sweet photos. I liked picture 10 – s/he had such a dopey but sweet face.
Obviously I loved the orangs. Goes without saying except I did.
No. 8 is, I believe, a charcoal burner, for warming the tootsies of auld wifies (in particular) in Mediterranean climes. Apply charcoal, light, place under table over which a tablecloth has been draped, and it gets all warm and toasty underneath, and the terracotta gives off radiant heat as well. The fumes are toxic, of course, but hey, what price warm tootsies?
Ah!…It’s for feeding poultry! Or at least/alternatively giving them access to fresh water.
I’ve seen , and indeed filled, something similar ‘cepting that the version I’ve come across was in galvanised steel.
The “white stuff” round the edges had me thinking that was cement…but no…its chicken stuff ( ahem) …guano if you get my drift.
OK all, it’s been a lot of fun and I didn’t really expect such a response – and such imaginative uses. Conan, slugs and snails are just as much of a pest here as in Scotland, and even if they do make an occasional good photie for SS, our customary Bulgarian love of all nature’s beasties doesn’t quite extend that far. Thanks for the tip. It will be put to use, and the beer sacrifice will compensate for any guilt feelings.
PP, herb plater it is not, but again, thanks for the idea. We have lots of them so no difficulty with experimentation. Ed, same applies to your croci. As for foot-warmer, we have a simple alternative for the sitooterie in winter – a small gas-heater under the table which is toppped by a cement slab inlaid with a a smoothed-off mix of small pebbles/sand. That absorbs the heat from underneath that keeps footsies toasty at the same time as radiating upper warmth. Three sides of the sitooterie are screened off by old curtains in winter so the whole affair is toasty, aided by a brazier at the open side.
Conan, I had to look up tagine. I knew it was a North African stew but didn’t know it took its name from the earthenware pot in which it’s cooked. Tandoori cousin – the oven in which Indian dishes of that name are cooked.
But nothing so exotic for our wee terracota dish. There was a stack of them in one of the barns when we too over and were equally stumped as to their purpose. A Bulgarski neighbour quickly solved the mystery – and as always, it seems so obvious, when you find out. This is a chicken feeder/waterer. Individual ‘hatches’ prevent pecking-order disputes and allow for equal shares. A good example from the days when communism and share-and-share-alike was the ruling principle here. (At least for chooks.) It now works very well as an all-points-access ashtray on the sitooterie table.
Tris,I think you should persuade Munguin that all entrants deserve a won for their creative – and helpful – suggestions. He has to go to North Korea anyway to fetch Sandy’s so he might as well splash out on a few more while there.
Nice, had me well stumped. Was going to say that somewhere I have seen things like that filled with sand and used to burn joss sticks but it was probably originally a chicken feeder too. Now that you have told us what it is, it makes perfect sense.
I don’t like the voting system, although I accept that PR is much better than FPTP, this PR system is poor.
It needs to be looked at.
In the meantime, the number of times you stand for and take a list seat should be limited.
You specifically have not been elected; your party has.
Also, when list MSPs leave the party they are representing as has happened on a few occasions, they should stand down.
They system was adopted so that people who had voted for a less popular party would have some representation.
The List MSPs are only representatives of their party. If they leave that party they should leave the chamber.
It happened a few years ago with SNP members, and they stayed on, not representing the party and recently with Mrs Ballantyne, who suddenly was representing a party which had got precisely NIL votes and depriving the Tories of a member.
The problem with clearing out dead wood, like once, twice, eight times a loser, Murdo Fraser is the potential for impacting on very small, list only, parties and independents.
Get rid of Fraser and there’ll be another placemat, to warm a seat & qualify for a pension.
Excellent idea that would get rid of a lot of useless timber, as Conan says, and Tris amplifies so well. The system was set up specifically to prevent an SNP (or any indy-supporting) majority with little thought to any other aspect. The first principle has now been nullified, so time to examine the rest, particulalry the ‘permanent’ list members who have never stood for constituency yet retain their seats without even having to try. Shomeshing wrong, shurely – to quote the noble Ffoulkes from the Hordes of Louse.
I see that the ineffable Annie Wells and Murdo Fraser are back in, with Annie Wells getting under 8.6% of the list vote – 2,800 or 2,900 votes, something like that.
I always think that as a gay single mother, Annie really ought to know better than to have anything to do with the Tory Part – though as she’s 17-odd years younger than me, and female, obviously, maybe she doesn’t have the same bitter memories of past persecution that I do.
Maybe not the gay bit as the Tories have been much more enlightened about that (or at least some of them have) in the recent past. But the single mother thing can’t have been easy under the Tories.
I notice she bragged that she was proud to have been reelected.
But SHE wasn’t really reelected.
There were votes to put a Tory in and she, for some unknown reason, was top of that list.
Ah well, it used to be said that some people would vote for a donkey if it had a blue rosette on. Or any other kind of farmyard animal if it comes to that.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Lovely as always Tris, a little oasis of serenity on a Sunday.
Pic 5, depending on the glass thickness, ornamental garden balls, but I suspect those are much heavier duty glass – Floats for a fishing net?
Did I won won won?
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That didn’t take long, and well done Sandy on reaching the right conclusion. They are indeed floats for fishing nets from the pre-plastic days and polystyrene floats or whatever is used now. In my Hebridean boyhood they were very common finds for beachcombers and just about every house had a few of them dotted around.
The two pictured here somehow survived and for a long time were oranments in my late prents’ house. They’ve since moved to Dubai and now Bulgaria – far travelled from their original Minch workplace or maybe the Atlantic fishing grounds. They’d certainly have a story to tell. As for your won win… that’s a Munguin offer, so you’ll have to direct your claim to The Towers. Enjoy the wee bowl of kimchi it will buy you!
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They are very pretty!
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You did, Sandy. You won a Won which will be winging its way to you just as soon as Munguin gets out to North Korea to purchase one won.
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Just the spot of life-affirmation I needed, Tris! I can rest peacefully now.
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Splendid, Ed.
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13. Unlucky for slugs and snails. Half fill it with beer, it attracts them in for a wee drink, but they never come out again…
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What a way to go…
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Lovely stuff. My guess for the clay/terracotta contraption is that it’s for planting herbs though what it was originally for, I dinnae ken. Lovely picture of Ziggy – those Bulgarian pets are real posers though, which gives very sweet photos. I liked picture 10 – s/he had such a dopey but sweet face.
Obviously I loved the orangs. Goes without saying except I did.
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I thought that too, PP. but it’s not.
These Bulgarian animals are really lucky. No wonder they look happy.
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Was no 13 a tagine of sorts?
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That was another thing I thought, Andi, but no. it isn’t.
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Pic 5. Yes, fishing net floats.
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So you won one Won too!…erm, I think.
🙂
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8 -It would be annoying staying at the hotel and discover you have gone the wrong side.
A wee travelogue of Azerbaijan.
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Especially if the lifts were off!
Lovely looking place and the food looks good.
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No. 8 is, I believe, a charcoal burner, for warming the tootsies of auld wifies (in particular) in Mediterranean climes. Apply charcoal, light, place under table over which a tablecloth has been draped, and it gets all warm and toasty underneath, and the terracotta gives off radiant heat as well. The fumes are toxic, of course, but hey, what price warm tootsies?
Do I see a won win in my future? I wonder!
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P.S. I expect you could always upcycle it into a planter for croci. I jalouse that that could be quite pretty.
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Ed, I suspect you’re dead right although I always thought a foot warmer was a good jigging tune.
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This is turning out to be a mystery that is beating even Munguin readers.
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Nope Ed, No win Won. Sorry… but awfully good guess.
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It’s a milk dispenser for multiple cats?
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Getting closer…
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Ah!…It’s for feeding poultry! Or at least/alternatively giving them access to fresh water.
I’ve seen , and indeed filled, something similar ‘cepting that the version I’ve come across was in galvanised steel.
The “white stuff” round the edges had me thinking that was cement…but no…its chicken stuff ( ahem) …guano if you get my drift.
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Erm it happens…
🙂
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OK all, it’s been a lot of fun and I didn’t really expect such a response – and such imaginative uses. Conan, slugs and snails are just as much of a pest here as in Scotland, and even if they do make an occasional good photie for SS, our customary Bulgarian love of all nature’s beasties doesn’t quite extend that far. Thanks for the tip. It will be put to use, and the beer sacrifice will compensate for any guilt feelings.
PP, herb plater it is not, but again, thanks for the idea. We have lots of them so no difficulty with experimentation. Ed, same applies to your croci. As for foot-warmer, we have a simple alternative for the sitooterie in winter – a small gas-heater under the table which is toppped by a cement slab inlaid with a a smoothed-off mix of small pebbles/sand. That absorbs the heat from underneath that keeps footsies toasty at the same time as radiating upper warmth. Three sides of the sitooterie are screened off by old curtains in winter so the whole affair is toasty, aided by a brazier at the open side.
Conan, I had to look up tagine. I knew it was a North African stew but didn’t know it took its name from the earthenware pot in which it’s cooked. Tandoori cousin – the oven in which Indian dishes of that name are cooked.
But nothing so exotic for our wee terracota dish. There was a stack of them in one of the barns when we too over and were equally stumped as to their purpose. A Bulgarski neighbour quickly solved the mystery – and as always, it seems so obvious, when you find out. This is a chicken feeder/waterer. Individual ‘hatches’ prevent pecking-order disputes and allow for equal shares. A good example from the days when communism and share-and-share-alike was the ruling principle here. (At least for chooks.) It now works very well as an all-points-access ashtray on the sitooterie table.
Tris,I think you should persuade Munguin that all entrants deserve a won for their creative – and helpful – suggestions. He has to go to North Korea anyway to fetch Sandy’s so he might as well splash out on a few more while there.
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Chickens. cats, both begin with C. If I haven’t won a won, maybe I could have won half of one won?
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Oh OK… You can win half of one Won, because Munguin is an all round good chap!
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WHAT….??????? says Munguin.
Do you think I’m made of Won?
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Nice, had me well stumped. Was going to say that somewhere I have seen things like that filled with sand and used to burn joss sticks but it was probably originally a chicken feeder too. Now that you have told us what it is, it makes perfect sense.
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Sorry Don…didn’t read your authoritative reply before I posted my speculative contribution. Poultry feeder it is.
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This is a petition just started. Imagine all the dead wood that this would clear out.
http://chng.it/FH96LTPc
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Signed. I think it’s not unreasonable.
I don’t like the voting system, although I accept that PR is much better than FPTP, this PR system is poor.
It needs to be looked at.
In the meantime, the number of times you stand for and take a list seat should be limited.
You specifically have not been elected; your party has.
Also, when list MSPs leave the party they are representing as has happened on a few occasions, they should stand down.
They system was adopted so that people who had voted for a less popular party would have some representation.
The List MSPs are only representatives of their party. If they leave that party they should leave the chamber.
It happened a few years ago with SNP members, and they stayed on, not representing the party and recently with Mrs Ballantyne, who suddenly was representing a party which had got precisely NIL votes and depriving the Tories of a member.
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Signed
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Have thought this for a long time- every single time I see Murdo Fraser (and a few others) in fact.
Imagine the state of labour and the tories if their respective leaders failed to win a constituency seat and had to stand down.
How would they try and spin their way out of that?
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They’d have to find new people, which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
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The problem with clearing out dead wood, like once, twice, eight times a loser, Murdo Fraser is the potential for impacting on very small, list only, parties and independents.
Get rid of Fraser and there’ll be another placemat, to warm a seat & qualify for a pension.
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The best thing, I think, might be to look at other proportional representation systems.
Multiple member constituencies maybe?
Any other ideas?
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Excellent idea that would get rid of a lot of useless timber, as Conan says, and Tris amplifies so well. The system was set up specifically to prevent an SNP (or any indy-supporting) majority with little thought to any other aspect. The first principle has now been nullified, so time to examine the rest, particulalry the ‘permanent’ list members who have never stood for constituency yet retain their seats without even having to try. Shomeshing wrong, shurely – to quote the noble Ffoulkes from the Hordes of Louse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see that the ineffable Annie Wells and Murdo Fraser are back in, with Annie Wells getting under 8.6% of the list vote – 2,800 or 2,900 votes, something like that.
I always think that as a gay single mother, Annie really ought to know better than to have anything to do with the Tory Part – though as she’s 17-odd years younger than me, and female, obviously, maybe she doesn’t have the same bitter memories of past persecution that I do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe not the gay bit as the Tories have been much more enlightened about that (or at least some of them have) in the recent past. But the single mother thing can’t have been easy under the Tories.
I notice she bragged that she was proud to have been reelected.
But SHE wasn’t really reelected.
There were votes to put a Tory in and she, for some unknown reason, was top of that list.
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Ah well, it used to be said that some people would vote for a donkey if it had a blue rosette on. Or any other kind of farmyard animal if it comes to that.
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Looking a some of the Scottish Tories…. maybe a donkey would be more useful. Certainly they’d be more agreeable to look at.
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Would you push my swing for me…
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Nothing better than a lad and his dog.
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