Burnie Chuckies... memories like pebbles in a stream

I have returned to Britain after many years overseas, in Australia. As a Scot by birth and heritage, I would have moved back to Scotland, but family considerations - the reason for returning from Australia - mean that I live in England, in the Cotswolds, within easy travel of London where my family live and work. to be honest, having lived for almost four decades in the warmer parts of Australia, the cold and wet of Scotland would be hard to take. The area I live in is beautiful, with wonderful walks, and full of history - and so fulfils two of my passions. I'll possibly use this site to comment of life as I find it now and to reflect on my life through memories of time gone-by.

Hence, the name I use: 'burniechuckies' - chuckies or chuckie-stanes being Scots for pebbles or small stones and burnie, a burn or of a burn, a stream. The stream is life and the pebbles, memories. Just as a stream polishes the pebbles and stones within it, so the stream of life polishes our memories. Pebbles in a stream or burniechuckies appear stable, but are often rolled by the water currents, especially in times of spate, but can also be disturbed by other events, including animal, human, or mechanical traffic. River stones can also be coated or covered by water weeds and algae.

Thus memories are not always, if ever, perfect recollections - they are affected by the passage of time, by life events, by circumstance: they can be - and often are - embellished or edited, more often than not subconsciously. Perhaps, because a story has been retold so many times, with some fanciful management to make it 'more interesting, funny, appealing...' the tale becomes 'true' to the teller. The memories that I relate will hopefully be true, if not always the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I may 'have to' change names and other details to protect the innocent, but more likely to protect the guilty, including me. In other instances, names will not necessarily be the correct ones because, frankly my dears, it's not just that I don't give a damn, it is just that I can't recall the names although I remember other aspects very well (or at least I think I do!).

So, that's it - pebbles from the stream or, in the lingo of my youth, burnie chuckies