We had a friend staying with us for a few days in the middle of the month, which is always a good excuse for getting out and about. Two of the places we visited we had not been to in years, decades even.

Greenbank Garden is in Clarkston, just outside Glasgow. The gardens were originally created at the same time as the house, above, was built in the 1760s for Robert Allason. He made his money as a tobacco merchant and slave trader, but after the American Wars of Independence he went bankrupt and lost Greenbank which today is owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The house is used as a wedding venue and for private events, but the garden is open to the public. Jude might spot a bench.

Greenbank from the garden

Green Man by Chris Waldron

Red bench

Any relation?

Carved lamb

Sundial

Sundial

Foam by Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson

Located just outside East Kilbride, the National Museum of Rural Life is a partnership between the National Trust for Scotland and National Museums Scotland. Wester Kittochside Farm belonged to the Reid family for more than 400 years and was left to the National Trust for Scotland by the tenth laird James Coats Reid and his wife, Margaret. Today it comprises a modern museum building, a working farm and the Georgian farmhouse with rooms presented as they would have been in the 1950s. You could walk between the museum and the house or take a ride in a very bumpy tractor trailer. I tried both methods, and I definitely preferred walking!

Red tractor

Tractor and trailer

Calf

Scarecrow

Farmhouse

Kitchen range

As you can see, the weather during our friend’s visit was, in local parlance, scorchio. Of course, after five dry weeks it all had to break on Friday 23rd just in time for the Late Spring Holiday Weekend. I had already planned a visit on Sunday to Gardens House in Houston, a new opening as part of Scotland’s Garden Scheme, so despite a wet morning we went ahead. We were lucky to arrive during a window of sunshine between showers! Amongst other plants, it has a fine collection of rhododendrons and azaleas which were very colourful.

Gardens House

Gardens House

Gardens House

Gardens House

Gardens House

My exhibition at Maryhill continues, though there haven’t been any specific events connected to it this month. However, life at Glasgow Women’s Library has been busy. The gallery below shows a fabulous Story Café in which Donna Moore launched her latest book, The Devil’s Draper. It’s set in the 1920s so Donna, who is also a part-time staff member at the Library, dressed the part beautifully, and also brought along a cake iced to match her book cover. She really is amazing! You can also see two of the current exhibitions (some of the banners from For Peace! and the installation In the Folds by local artist Alexandra Compton), a guided walk in the Necropolis where my favourite angel, who always used to have a pink flower, has now acquired a doggy friend and, finally, me looking very pleased with myself after a major move-round to make room for new poetry books.

Donna Moore

Devil’s Draper cake

For peace!

In the folds

Necropolis walk

Necropolis walk

Necropolis walk

Proud of the poetry

John made the most of the good weather to go cycling. Below is a trip to Bute.

Isle of Bute

Isle of Bute

Isle of Bute ferry

And this one was a long mostly off-road trip starting and ending in Callander.

Stream crossing

To Loch Earn. Photo by Mark Davison.

Lunch at Loch Earn

Near St Fillans

Heading back to Callander

And finally, a new addition to the city’s Billy Connolly murals appeared on Nelson Mandela Place recently. This one was self-initiated rather than commissioned and is a collaboration between artists Conzo Throb and Ciaran Globel, known as ConzoGlobel.

The Glasgow comic is often known as The Big Yin (Big One) and is depicted naked except for his iconic Big Banana Boots. Maybe he has just plucked the smiling sun from the place where the sun don’t shine – his bare bahookie!

On that bum note, I’ll end. Happy June!