Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 19th December, 2018)

Nice photo Rev. Emergency pottie for the use of.

What a lovely Christmas present David..wish I could make something like that..I wonder what type of wood has been used.

Love it! I love owls.

They feared the owl would swoop to gouge,
The eye of a king whose name was George,
To whom all things you now must render,
Your rightful lord,not that Old Prentender
James!.. who you drink to cup to lip,
And toast him'Go thy way old trip'.
Ralph Standish was a Jacobite
And for this they turned the rat upright.

When they built Shevy secondary school our school badge was a sheaf of Hay for Shevy and a Dish for Standish, in them days nobody knew about the Owl and the Rat story.

Definitely a "look at me" from the kitchen window.....
Maureen I'm probably wrong but I think it looks like pine.

Maureen - the wood used was larch.
Poet - I understand it was Standish himself who turned the rat - from upright (as here) to supine, with its legs in the air. I thought that a bit difficult for a chain-saw carver, so opted for the original position for the rat.
I assume Standish was drawing attention to his plight, following his arrest in the '15 rebellion - that he was the hapless rat in the claws of a greater power. Anyone know of another explanation?
Mick - given the number of owls and rats on public display around Standish, in the churches, and on Standish UDC properties, I'd be surprised if no one knew of the story.

Thank you Veronica,God loves a trier.
And thank you Rev..the wood is just beautiful.

Ralph was condemned to death following the uprising and his lands forfeit. Given that he was eventually pardoned and Standish Hall repurchased, the subsequent inversion of the rat may have been both an act of contrition by the family and a symbol that 'the young lord' was back under the thumb.