I’m very late with my May gallivanting post, not for any exciting reason nor because I had so much to write about. Various bits of life admin just kept getting in the way!

Until last week I thought that May was going to be a month spent entirely in Glasgow, but at the last minute we decided to gallivant across to Edinburgh for a day out.

The main reason was to see the Joan Eardley exhibition in Modern 2, as advertised above, before it closes this month, after which we popped across to Modern 1 for a quick view of work by Helen Chadwick and Louise Bourgeois.

We had seen the former’s Piss Flowers before – outdoors at Jupiter Artland – but not the photographs of their creation which were, shall we say, interesting: the “flowers” are created by making casts of the interior spaces left in the snow by warm urine.

Louise Bourgeois I associate with big spiders so it was interesting to see some of her other work as well.

Explanations for anyone interested:

After the Modern Art Gallery we headed across town to the City Art Centre to see Jean F. Watson: an artistic legacy. From the gallery’s website:

Jean Fletcher Watson (1877-1974) was an Edinburgh resident who had a significant impact on the city’s cultural heritage. During the 1960s and 1970s she presented a series of financial donations to the City of Edinburgh to develop a collection of Scottish art. Since then, the Jean F. Watson Bequest Fund has enabled the acquisition of more than 1,000 artworks. This exhibition celebrates Watson’s vision and generosity, showcasing a selection of historic and contemporary artworks from the collection.

Here are a few of my favourite images and a bronze bust of Watson herself, her only known official portrait.

Despite not travelling far May has been very busy, though most of it consisted of a lot of socialising and various theatre performances and concerts which have not left much in the way of photographic evidence. The latter category ranged from the sublime (the RSNO and Nicola Benedetti playing Elgar’s Violin Concerto) to the ridiculous: The High Life: The Musical (trailer in link). Camp as a row of tents, this was a revival of a 90s Scottish TV series set on a fictional airline, Air Scotia, and starring, amongst others, Alan Cumming, whom I could quite happily watch reading aloud from the back of a cereal packet. Oh dearie me.

What did I photograph? On May the fourth the Partickhill post box got a new, Star Wars themed, topper.

While helping to lead a Women’s Library history walk I came across a yarn bombed bench in the Gorbals dedicated to someone’s Wee Granny.

I spotted various pieces of street art – I had to look up Clara Zetkin (1857-1933), a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women’s rights.

Finally from me, the bed in the Botanic Gardens where the ashes of comedian Stanley Baxter were recently scattered and a beautiful sunset seen in a West End lane on our way home from one of our concerts.

Of course, there is more from the cyclist who certainly didn’t confine himself to Glasgow. A few highlights from him: one road ride and one gravel ride.

And that’s it for May – linking, better late than never, to Natalie’s Monthly Wrap-Up. She travelled much further than I did last month, visiting both Italy and Denmark.