Friday 12 October 2007

Down the Docks

Hanging round Fittee with Mike taking photos. Some at 30sec exposure.

Here's how this works. I text Mike: "it is misty, I doubt I can do anything in that twilight expect some shots of Fittee." Mike: "be round in 5 mins". 2 hours of setting up shots and him acting as spotter for my sniping.

No lens flares, or mist added, only manipulation has been some level balance, cropping and resizing. I love the wee remote control unit - means I can set up the shot, and press the remote unit without even touching the camera. Another great cheap buy from eBay.

Oh, and yes, that is Mike posing in a couple of shots - he's going to have to write a book as he keeps describing them as "book cover" shots.

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Fittee is a small fishing village at the foot of the Dee river, hence Foot-Dee, Fittee. Part of Aberdeen now. Aber - mouth of - the Dee. So, another case of Foot and Mouth. Boom-tish.

11 comments:

Fiona-Jane Brown said...

Ahem - Footdee is nothing to do with it - it's a Victorian corruption of 'Futty', which you can see on the Pont's maps. Futtie Wynd runs from the edge of Castlegate down Castle Terrace and across the tarry-brig. Futty maybe comes from Fothach, Fittick, i.e. St. Fittick, or related to the Gaelic word for a sheep-pen.

Beautiful photos! Love the cat, did he pose for you too? Next time, please invite me to your photoshoots!! ;-)

Clarkie looks like he's starring in the latest Rebus novel!

AktoMan said...

Nonsense - Pont's map clearly refers to the village as Fittye. He also refers to a familiar place across the water as Kinkoirth. Link

It is a bigger jump from Fittick (hard 'K') than it is to Dee - being the name of the big effoff river that it is at the Foot of. Here's a link to the Book of St Fittick (patron saint of Torry). Where his kirks are not being mentioned as being in Fittee (or even Footdee).

By coincidence, I note that the church in Footdee is St. Clements. But not this one.

Mapmakers spell names to reflect the local pronunciation - or rather their attempt at it. Maybe if he was Fittich, or even the patron saint of the village. Or had a time machine to go back and see what the original village was really called, rather than historical speculation.

Fiona-Jane Brown said...

Well, locals never ever call it Footdee - it is always Fittie. I ken, I've interviewed them!! ;->

AktoMan said...

So? Glasgow gets called lots of names by locals, it is still called Glasgow.

Here's a link to the Cooncil info on the place officially called Footdee (pdf link).

If enough people call the The Cooncil, will they official change their name to that? I think not. There must be a police force is Scotland which has the words "Ra Polis" embroidered on their uniforms. I can't remember how many times I've seen the words "SILOP AR" in my rear view mirror. Oh yes, none!

Fiona-Jane Brown said...

So, trying to be funny, are we?

The pdf link there says of Footdee "known to most of the residents as Fittie". Glasgow is also "the dear green place" from the Gaelic Glas-chu; (glas - means bright green) (though, 'cu' means dog, or so I thought!)

:-p

Fittie - or rather the fisher squares were the first cooncil hooses in Aberdeen, but John Smith, aka Tudor Johnnie the architect who designed the arched facade of St Nicholas' kirkyard, was the mannie who drew it up. Now that's a city architect and a half to have!!

Apparently it only took about 50 years of cooncil ownership before they got fed up of the ppl complaining and auctioned off the houses to the residents! I've even seen a bill of sale that someone it Fittie found in their house! It belonged to the original bidder, who had paid £40 for the house over a period of 12 years. The wifie who owned the house now said it cost her double that to get the certificate framed!!!

Anyway - Try this one for googling - Dee Village c.1790

AktoMan said...

Who's trying to be funny? I'm just following your logic. Just because the locals pronounce the name one way doesn't mean that the place is written that way. The council call it Footdee. It is protected by the "Footdee Conservation Area" (link)

No "Footdee", no "Footdee Conservation Area", and the council have to re-designate the area as "Story Quine says it should be the Fittie Conservation Area" [SQsisbtFCA]. No problems, so long as the money to do that doesn't come from my taxes.

Fiona-Jane Brown said...

;-)

Michael Grant Clark said...

Thought you were going to colour correct and straighten the photos? I got dizzy looking at them. Fitty is a great place though, have to go back.

AktoMan said...

Forgot to straighten out the ones of you leaning on the lamp-post at the corner of the street. Ah well, I'll go and fix them.

I straightened the lamp-posts disappearing into the mist, but so many other lines at various angles.

Agreed, the place is good, but I hear that the Cooncil will be knocking it down, and replacing it with someplace names Fittick.
;-)

AktoMan said...

Mike - that's the photos of you 'straightened'. The reason for the narky txts was that Zooomr has been getting slooooowwwwwww at times. 4x, I edited the photos and saved at 7pm. it is now 20.40pm, and that is them just uploaded. I've logged out, in and even disconnected to pick up faster connections. And this is after the posties have gone back to work too!

Anonymous said...

Story quine is bang on. The area and local church were called Futty. See Jocob Gordons map from 1661:
"Abredoniae Novae et Veteris Descriptio". I would go along with the theory that the name came from the church of st Fittick, which was pronounced by the locals as Futty. On the map the whole area south of the queens links is marked as Futty.

On a more serious note, my cat has asked me to request a royalty payment for use of his pictures of ten fresh local fishies. He will meet you next to the lamp post...
Martin