A kilt accessory for the yard

[English Bloke]

In 1996 I was working as Non-Exercising Safety Staff for British Military exercises conducted on the Canadian Prairie near Medicine Hat, Alberta. One sunny afternoon, there was not much going on and I was sitting in my Landrover reading a book.

Suddenly my radio crackled into life and I was called up by an Air Corps callsign to inform me that he would be "arriving in my location ETA, approximately zero-two minutes". It wasn't often I was visited by passing helicopters and getting next to NO notice usually meant something was urgently WRONG.

I threw my book down and went to ensure that there was an adequate landing zone available, this is not difficult to do as you only need to identify a relatively flat bit, there are only three trees in that 250 square Kilometers of prairie. I also made sure that medical supplies and other vitals were quickly to hand should they be needed.

I could hear the chopper approaching so I guided the pilot in, landed him safely and moved to his 2o'clock position to await clearance to approach his Gazelle (helicopter). Before I had chance to give him my thumbs up, he stopped his rotas and was out of the cockpit and on the ground. He dashed towards me and as I was about to ask him what was going on, he stooped down and grabbed a fist full of grass. He rubbed it between his gloved fingers and smelled it, pushed it under my nose and said "sniff that!"

"What?"

"Smell it, smell that!" and he waved it under my nose again. I breathed in and looked at him with a 'have you been smoking this?' expression.

"It's wild Rosemary!" he said grinning, followed by "Gotta go" and with that he dashed back to his aircraft, jumped aboard and flew away.

I called him on the radio to ask "what was that all about?"

He replied "just thought you might want to know, the prairie's full of it." He was sober, possibly a little bored, definately MAD as a Fish! but one of lifes naturally Nice Blokes. It's an incident I will never forget and it still makes me smile when I remember!

In 2008 I started to take an interest in my Scottish Heritage. I learned more about my family history and the Clan Bruce and I discovered that the Clan Plant is... Rosemary . Was it a message I wonder?