As mentioned last week, we had a couple of boat trips in July – but where else did we gallivant? We enjoyed a sunny afternoon at Pollok House and gardens on Glasgow’s Southside. They spelt my name wrong on the potatoes though …
Dundee
I gallivanted off to Dundee with Women’s Library friends (Anna, Beverly and Mary Alice) to follow the Women’s History Trail. Basically a series of blue plaques, it was interesting but not especially photogenic.
More colourful were the comic characters around town created by publisher DC Thomson.
And there was one of those lovely public art trails – Penguin Parade in this case.
Finally, at Discovery Point we admired the new branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum which opens in September. It contrasts with, and also complements, RSS Discovery (Royal Research Ship), the last traditional three-masted ship to be built in Britain in 1901.
Irish and Highland Famine Memorial
A new garden and monument to commemorate those who died, or emigrated, in the famines of the 1840s (caused by potato blight) has opened on Glasgow Green near the People’s Palace. Some of the inscriptions on the upturned boat read “Even the birds were silent in grief” and “O, my native land, you are on my mind” – very moving, but rather spoiled by the amount of time we had to wait for three small boys to give up clambering all over it. There’s no notice asking people not to climb on it, but I feel there should be out of respect.
Close by are other monuments that I like – the peace memorial to those who opposed World War One, the International Workers Memorial (inside it says “Fight for the living ; Remember the dead) and the lovely inscription to mouser Smudge, the only cat to be a full member of the GMB Union!
Spotted around town
The longest Lego Bridge in the world is in St Enoch’s Shopping Centre. Who knew? Definitely not me!
Close by is an exhibition, presumably aimed at young people, on Civil Engineering. As well as photographs of current engineers it included some historic figures in superhero garb, and I was pleased to see some women amongst them. For example, Dorothy Buchanan who, in 1927, was the first woman to become a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Somewhere recently I read about Edward VIII pillar boxes. These are quite rare because Edward was king for less than a year (1936), but apparently Glasgow has several and three are quite near me. I thought I had saved the blog post / article or whatever it was – but if I did I can’t find it. If whoever wrote it is reading this, please let me know! Anyway, I was pleased to spot one in Hyndland (forgive the skinny picture below, it was surrounded by waste-bins which I’ve chopped out) and will keep my eyes open for the other two.
The shrouded figure sleeping on a bench is by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz. It’s in Nelson Mandela Place (behind St George’s Tron Church) and is called Homeless Jesus. There’s a serious message here, but I think it’s lost through an obscure location – and something it has in common with the pillar box is that it was difficult to photograph because of the rubbish bags behind it. Another case of lack of respect?
Black and White Challenge
You’re all probably familiar with the Black and White Challenge – “Black and white photos of your life for seven days. No people, no explanations.” It’s been floating around Facebook and WordPress for ages, but it was on Twitter that I was challenged this month. These were my selections. Some you will recognise! I liked the way they turned out, mostly. B&W disguised some unwanted background details (e.g. – guess what? – a yellow waste-bin behind the fireman gates) and highlighted the sky reflected in the windows of the terraced house.
The last bit
I am finally completing Kim’s Sunshine Blogger Award with the last three questions!
- In one sentence, what is your life philosophy? You never know what’s round the corner – so seize the day.
- What do you want to do tomorrow? Well, “tomorrow” as I am writing this will be quite a routine day. “Tomorrow” on the day this is published, I hope to be near the sea again. I’ll tell you about it later if I am.
- What is your favourite dish to cook, and why? John is a better cook than I am. I joke that my strength is bucket cookery – bung everything in one pan and, depending on the herbs and spices, it might turn out to be pasta sauce, curry, chilli or couscous. I’m usually in a hurry because I’ve found something more interesting to do and lost track of time.
Some updates from recent posts!
- The Mackintosh Building is currently being demolished brick by brick, though the Director of the School of Art thinks it can be rebuilt. Residents and business owners who live nearby have not been able to access their premises for 5 weeks and are getting restive. I don’t blame them.
- Remember the big Moon hanging from the ceiling in the Mackintosh Church? After Glasgow, it went on display in Bristol and was then bound for Austria – but it got lost in the post! Seriously – you can read about it here.
- John’s sore knee is still sore, and is now officially arthritis. 😦 That’s a good lead-in to a Scottish word of the month – I’m going for hirple, which means to limp or hobble. We’re hoping the hirpling ends soon.
Let’s finish on a happier note – July was also my birthday month! How far can you stretch middle age out these days? A bit further than 61 I hope …
Have a great August!
We shared the river with other vessels – here a Clyde ferry is waiting at Wemyss (pronounced Weems) Bay.
And when we got into more open water, the view was dominated by the distinctive “sleeping giant” form of Arran.
The skies were quite grey, as you can see, and it was windy and cold on deck. However, fleeces and cagoules dealt with the temperature and we stayed in the open most of the day, only disappearing downstairs for a beer towards the end. That, and a delicious Thai curry on the way home, rounded off a great day out.
I thought I had broken my jinx on walks – last year, I seemed to get soaked every time I acted as a tour guide. This year, I’ve done two walks for the Women’s Library, both in bright sunshine, and Processions was also a lovely day. My luck ran out the following weekend when my Maryhill Women’s History walk attracted the rain back. Despite that, all 15 participants turned up and stayed to the end. Jessie features in it too – here, I’m passing her picture around. (Though since I drafted this, I’ve done another Women’s Library Walk – yesterday, 1st July, which was scorching.)
It’s been a sad month for Charles Rennie Mackintosh fans, so here’s some more cheerful stuff. During the recent West End Festival, the Mackintosh Church at Queen’s Cross (the only one he designed which was actually built, and now home of the 
Reluctant to end my gallivanting just yet, I hopped on the Subway to Govan because I still hadn’t viewed the Mary Barbour statue without the hundreds of people surrounding it at its opening (as described in 
For my last selection of roofs for 
Another imposing building is the neo-Gothic University of Glasgow, but I’ve not chosen an external view this time. Above are the Cloisters, also known as the Undercroft. It’s graduation season at the moment and they are a-flutter with colourful gowns, but this shot was taken around Christmas.
Just look at the carvings beneath the roof of this building at 1 La Belle Place, Kelvingrove! Currently a Hindu Mandir, it was built as the Queen’s Rooms in the 1850s to be used to celebrate the arts and sciences. Of particular interest to me: it was the location of a Suffrage Celebration meeting (tickets sixpence) on Saturday 20th April 1918 after the planting of the Suffrage Oak on nearby Kelvin Way. I only learned this recently and it has made me look at the building with new affection.
The houses at each end of this terrace on Kirklee Road have a splendid round turret. The one shown, until recent years, was supported by concrete buttresses which made it very ugly, but it has now been strengthened and restored. I can imagine sitting in that bay window with a good book and a glass of red – though I’d love that even more in this next one.
This is Kensington Tower (1858). Wow, just wow! I would love to have that tower room.
If you think the roofline of Lancaster Crescent looks like a terrace has been bolted on to a standalone villa, you are correct. Redlands House was built in 1870-71 and originally stood in grounds of 24 acres. For much of the 20th century it was a women’s hospital before being converted back into residential accommodation. The terrace was added in stages between 1898 and 1907, which you can probably tell by the different windows at roof level.
Ayton House (c. 1859) was badly damaged in the Blitz in 1941, and by the 1980s was threatened with demolition. However, it was rescued by a developer who added a modernist penthouse flat. What do you think? It certainly divides opinion locally – but it’s another place I could imagine myself sitting, glass in hand, at sunset.
It’s an extension bearing the unmistakable hallmarks of Charles Rennie Mackintosh who designed it. Which brings me back to the sad subject of the Art School – the 
Many thanks to Becky for running such a great challenge. I’ve enjoyed participating.
Last month, I started working my way through the Sunshine Blogger Award questions as set by 
In like a lion, out like a lamb? March certainly lived up to the first part of that proverb: in fact snow has been a feature of most of it. There were plenty of snowmen/women about, but this year igloos seemed to be in fashion too. This one is in the Botanic Gardens.
Do you know Kim from 
What’s your favourite food memory, a meaningful meal that you will never forget, and why? What was so special about it? Well, at the moment Airds Hotel, mentioned above, is uppermost in my memory. Unlike many fancy hotels and restaurants, which usually only offer one vegetarian choice, often bland, I had a whole menu to choose from and everything I ate was delicious. In fact, everything everybody ate was declared delicious and dinner was a real event on both nights. As you can see, Mark and John were most definitely relaxed afterwards.
Going nowhere!
Maryhill Burgh Halls, where I volunteer as a Heritage Tour Guide, currently has an exhibition of old photographs of Glasgow accompanied by a series of events, one of which is me talking about women’s history in Glasgow. I’ve been busy this month working out what I want to say – then cutting it down drastically – and creating a slide-show. The tickets sold out a couple of weeks ago (only 40, but still) and so I’m repeating it two weeks later. Eep! No pressure, no pressure at all. I’ll let you know next month how it goes.
Did you spot the common factor in the 1993 and 2018 pictures of me? It’s the ear-rings! This was entirely unintentional. Just after we moved into the house, John went to a conference in Freiburg and brought them back as a gift (I have a fine collection of ear-rings from all over the world as a result of his travels). On the day we took the new photos I chose them because they reflected the diamond shapes on my top, and I only realised when I looked at the old photos again that I was wearing the same pair!
