The week in Glasgow Gallivanting: 1st-7th January 2024

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Raising a glass to retirement

I’ve decided to try something different this year, The week in Glasgow Gallivanting. My monthly Gallivanting posts have been going for seven years and are starting to get unwieldly. In the beginning they were brief catch-ups of smaller events that didn’t qualify for their own posts. Now that I am blogging less, and running so far behind, they are stuffed with things that in the past might have had their own post. Sometimes I write Gallivanting as I go along, but mostly I don’t and it can be a bit daunting to look back over a whole month. So paradoxically, posting more frequently might be easier! I’ll see how it goes anyway.

So – onto the week that has just passed. My opening photograph was taken at 00:01 am on 1st January, John’s first day of retirement. He looks happy, and so far no regrets have surfaced. On Tuesday we went to the University to collect the stuff he wants to keep. He still looks happy! Maybe he won’t be so happy when we start clearing out stuff we already have to make room for the new stuff. In the meantime, we have a lot of unpacked boxes.

Uplifting the boxes
At the car
Into the car
Locking the door for the last time

I don’t do any women’s history walks in the winter but use the time for rewrites and new research. I thought I had completed a new route for the Women’s Library Necropolis walk when, in December, I read about a new project, Glasgow Requiem. The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis and Aproxima Arts are to create a flower memorial to the thousands of people whose graves are unmarked. 15,000 bulbs have already been planted for the spring, and in summer it will be a wild flower meadow. Last week, I went off to find it to see how I could fit it into our route.

Site of new wildflower memorial
Flower memorial in the making

Very easily it transpires! It is right next to another new stop, one of the three memorials to nurses from Glasgow Royal Infirmary which were restored by the Friends a couple of years ago as their tribute to the work of the NHS during the pandemic, so I can combine the two.

Glasgow Royal Infirmary memorial

The nurses in this grave died between 1872 and 1887 and were aged between 21 and 62. Causes of death included tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and pneumonia, all common 19th century diseases.

As for the unmarked burials, there are many reasons why they exist including the creation of mass graves during  outbreaks of typhus or cholera. Women who died in Duke Street Prison or the infamous Lock Hospital (for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases) and whose bodies were not claimed by their families could also be buried here. The Necropolis was not noted for pauper graves, although poor people would often pay the gravediggers a farthing or ha’penny to place the body of an infant or child in a prepared grave before a grander burial, thus many of the visible tombs have unknown tenants as well as their official occupant.

On the way to the Necropolis I was able to get a photograph of this lovely piece of street art on Cathedral Street. Usually there are cars and buses whizzing past, but because traffic was still light so soon after the new year holiday I was able to capture the whole wall with no obstructions.

“The future is ours to change” by Articulate Hub

Designed by care-experienced young people, the mural is about Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and points out that every child deserves to grow up safe, loved and respected.

We ended the week with a lovely two-night stay in Auchterarder, Perthshire, with my cousin Ian and his wife. On Saturday we had a crisp, cold walk in Cloan Glen.

Signpost at the start
Ian and waterfall
Mountain view
Which way now?
House with turret

The house at the end is one of three grand piles in the area which belonged to the Haldane family (two still do, I think including this one). This family of achievers has included famous politicians, scientists, and the writer Naomi Mitchison.

Mahogany and brass ship’s wheel

On Sunday before we left Ian produced this early 20th century ship’s wheel, which had come down to him from his grandfather (the one we don’t share) who worked for John Hastie and Co Ltd in Greenock which manufactured steering gear for ships between about 1845 and 1991. My “other” grandfather also worked at Hastie’s as a turner, as did several family members including, briefly, my dad, before he candidated for the ministry. I can remember visiting Grandad at the factory door and being fascinated by all the machinery behind him. This, of course, prompted lots of reminiscing about grandparents, including our Granny-in-common’s renowned prowess at making Scotch pancakes (drop scones) on an ancient griddle on a black, coal-fired range. There were very few mod-cons in her house!

So Week 1 done! I hope 2024 has been good to you so far.

Scotland, UK , , , ,

52 Comments »

  2. Hi Anabel – I loved seeing John on the 1st of the year … and I hope still happy with his home office! Brilliant idea to correlate everything to make a blog post comprehensive yet not too exhausting for said blogger. You always give us fascinating information and photos – enjoy 2024 in these retirement years … cheers Hilary

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  7. John looks very happy in his retirement, and I’m sure he will never look back. It’s nice when both of you are retired. I’ve been “retired” for a while now but we’re still somewhat captive since Mike is still working.

    The new project of the Glasgow Requiem with the flower bulbs as a memorial to unmarked graves sounds interesting and worth exploring. Also, I love the mural “The future is ours to change.” The walk in Cloan Glen looks magical.

    Well, you got me to thinking with your weekly posts! You’re such a busy person, that you do have lots to write about. I know I also write some VERY unwieldy posts, especially my year-end recap. I like for my own records to have the year all in one place, summed up, but maybe I should get back to my monthly cocktail hours where I could have longer posts to sum up the month, then I could do a briefer summation of the year. Ideas, ideas! It’s just putting them into action that takes time!

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  8. Another quiet week then. When will you do anything?!
    Such a grand Idea to have a memorial garden and with wikd flowers. I hope the planners have a seven year schedule to ensure it doesn’t revert to grass after a couple of spectacular years. Wild flowers that aren’t wild need work!!
    And as you know I so enjoy the energy behind street art.
    Onwards to another static week two!

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    • Ha ha, if I wrote about the hours I spent faffing about you wouldn’t say that! I presume the memorial garden will have funding for a set time and there is a crowdfunder to help with the planting, so I hope that will enable them to keep on top of it. The Friends are quite good at raising money- they have renovated several memorials recently, other than the nurses’ ones. As long as it doesn’t get left to the council!

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  9. That’s why I’m glad I do not have long weekends away or two week holidays anymore. Enjoyable at the time but the effort and space required to size and store all the photographs would be too much of a hassle for me nowadays I suspect. Quick and easy is my post philosophy at the moment. Bob. BSS.

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  10. I’m sure John will enjoy retirement, we love it. The wildflower meadow to commemorate those with no known grave is a beautiful idea. I hope we get to see it when it’s in full bloom. And those shared memories of Granny’s pancakes are to be treasured. We were having an extended family conversation recently about my mother-in-law and the food all the grandchildren remember her for. She was a great cook.

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    • I have been retired a long time (took very early retirement because of library closure) and I keep telling John he won’t look back. I’ll be doing a walk up there in the spring when hopefully there will be something to show. Apparently Granny also made amazing donuts, but I don’t remember them, just the pancakes – and how old-fashioned everything was.

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  12. A weekly post is a great idea if it helps to keep up with everything. John looks very happy to have finished work 🙂 I love the street art and you were lucky to get the whole piece without anything being in the way.
    I like the part about pauper infants being buried in grander graves, quite sad really. It reminds me of something I wrote in my last-but-one post about two pubs being relocated to a site near Manchester Cathedral – when they came to dig the foundations they found human bones from poor people whose families couldn’t afford for them to be buried in the Cathedral grounds so they buried them as close to it as they could.

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  13. Anabel, I love the flower memorial garden for unmarked graves. Les has a couple of older brothers both stillborn and it took us ages to find one of them. Happy to say that he’s now got a headstone. The grieving process was taken away from women back then, just get on it, shocking. Onto, happier times and smiles, the big retirement and adjustment for you both.

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  14. Warning: my car has not fitted into the garage since my husband retired from university fourteen years ago – even though I finally got him to get rid of a LOT of paper!

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  15. As I’ve only recently started following your blog I’m pleased you have decided to try writing a post weekly! My attention span is lacking these days so short, sharp and full of interest suits me. Thank you.

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  17. Weekly is good I think, you certainly keep busy enough. The flower memorial is an excellent idea, it will look lovely when in flower. And congratulations to John. I hope he has his own office for all those books etc. It’s what keeps us sane. I’m sure he’ll be out on his bike a lot more.

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  20. I think a weekly post is an excellent idea, so much easier for you to keep up with 🙂 And I confess as a reader the monthly ones sometimes seemed a bit too long (and I say that as someone who does tend towards longers posts myself!). A weekly read will be easier to digest for us too 🙂 Congratulations to John on his retirement, I hope you both adjust easily to the new lifestyle (I have a feeling you will!) I love the street art piece on Cathedral Street, I’m so glad you got a photo of it in its entirety 😀

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    • Thanks for the feedback and good wishes, Sarah. I agree about the long posts – I got bored writing them sometimes so they could be very uneven. We’ll see how this goes and if I make it here next week! I never thought I would keep up the monthly ones but seven years (other than a gap over mum’s last illness) is a pretty good run I think so 🤞🏻.

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  22. I’m not sure that even once a week is sufficient for your busy life. Do you ever have time to stand and stare? Keep it up as much as you want for your happy band of readers though!

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