GLASGOW BUILDINGS IN LATE AFTERNOON NOVEMBER LIGHT

* * * * * Catching the last of the light at the end of the day on various buildings in Glasgow  this week * * * * *

The first 2 are reflections in the windows of a modern building showing the red Victorian sandstone building opposite which has been lit up by the last of the sun's rays (about 3:30 pm).  (Ingram Street next to Queen Street Station)

These next 2 are a different day with the last of the sun's rays on St Vincent Crescent tenement facade. (Opposite PC World, Finneston)

Lastly, Buchanan Street looking south.  About 4 pm; the light is going hence making a clear outline of the Victorian roof tops on the right-hand side.

WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT NOVEMBER?

Just about everyone I know hates November.  Many our age head off to sunnier climes until it's over.

Fortunately the grey skies don't bother me; happiness is where you find it, I reckon.  

This poem was written by someone who must have lived in a cave.

November 

by Thomas Hood

No sun — no moon! 

No morn — no noon — 

No dawn — no dusk — no proper time of day.

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, 

No comfortable feel in any member — 

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, 

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! — 

November!

So ... he I am in Glasgow Scotland in November. 

No healthful ease?  How about the Norwegian Julefest where we met up with Inger and ate lovely waffles and cakes and met her grand-daughter Ariana.

Warmth and cheerfulness?  Try a dram by the fire.

No proper time of day?  There always time to get into the kitchen.  I took out the pressure cooker to make some soup only to find a piece of pink Lego lying in the bottom!

No sun, no moon?  But plenty of reflections... such as the south side of Queen Street Station in Glasgow as construction and upgrading are nearing completion.

No comfortable feel in any member?  Here's Harriet, after school, reading the Times Literary Supplement which Iain had left open on the kitchen table!

No stars?  Plenty in our house and they are stuck on to my keyboard keys by 'Mr Nobody' aka Ellie!

No morn, no noon; no shade, no shine?  Plenty of shade and lots of shine on Ben Lomond's snowy top in the distance as we drove up the side of Loch Lomond mid-morning.

I am repeatedly reminding people that they live in a maritime climate "Look no snow!" (Yes, sometimes we get it but it never stays for long.). Basically, there is always a lot of 'green' in this country.  It is most noticeable when being away to a different climate and returning back home again.  The land has a lot of evergreen growth, not so much as conifers, but more in the way of laurel, rhododendrons, azaleas, Piraeus plants, green garden hedges and different ivies, and holly of course.  Added to this there are yew trees along with cedar and the other conifers are in gardens and roadsides giving their coat of green across the country.  In many fields winter crops are planted adding to the greenery too. 

And lastly I revel in the fact that I can have plants from the garden centre outside in the damp and they last and last.  Yes, it can get frosty in which case I bring them inside.

But do we get snow at the end of the year which lasts until spring break-up?  No we do not! 

I guess it's all relative; that is why I am probably the only person in this part of the world who doesn't mind the month of November!

AUTUMN AFTER SCHOOL

It gets dark now earlier and earlier which means when we return home in the late afternoon we tend to stay put.

Harriet (6) and Ellie (4.75) have been with us after school on several occasions recently. That gives us time to catch up with some photos.

Harriet walking to school with Dad on a very cold day.

After school Harriet  and Ellie are working on one of our delightful Wentworth (UK) wooden jigsaw puzzles which we had made using our own photos. 

If left unfinished at the end of the evening Iain won't go to bed until it is finished!

All finished.

Iain in the kitchen. Amazon has just delivered a door-stopper of a book...which takes precedence, of course, over what is happening in the frying pan.

Mairi's photo of making a gingerbread house at Hallowe'en.  

EDINBURGH'S HIDDEN TREASURE

It was time for Ishbel and I to hit the malls again this Saturday.  We don't actually plan, or say, which malls or which location.  After all, it is always an 'inventure' [very young Alastair's word for an 'adventure'] which means that we do not have a particular plan or route in mind. And, in this case, malls are not necessarily involved.   Like this 'inventure' ...

We ended up taking the train to Edinburgh to have a look at some bookshops.  There is a new one which has opened up not far from Auntie Ish's flat.  It is Topping and Company Booksellers of Edinburgh whose website is here.   https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk

Oh such a beautiful building. It's Georgian and was formerly a bank. It has lots of nooks and crannies (formerly meeting rooms) on several floors all of which are crammed with books on tall shelves accompanied by ladders on sliding rails.

The second floor window looks north and on to the driech day outside. There were small wooden tables and stools in the occasional corner. Unlike Waterstone's it did not have a café area but I did see a tray with a teapot and mug being set down on a nearby table for one customer.

Ishbel poured over the books in the Young Adults section; I explored the different levels observing an American style 'Colonial' rag rug in one wee room.  I hadn't seen one of those in years! I ended up getting more ideas than books and also chatting to the young staff one of whom belongs to the family business.

Ishbel has no difficulty choosing an armload of books.  Here she is in the corner looking at 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky.  We had a wee joke: she is learning ballroom dancing at school and is due to attend the upcoming school dance.   It seems nothing has changed over the years of the boys all sitting on one side of the hall and the girls on the other.  Being a wallflower is not a new phenomenon.  I told her that I thought she would look good sitting on the bench against the wall with this book held up to her nose; it would at least make her slightly different from the other girls all sitting on the bench along the wall of the gym!

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN...?

Today is the anniversary of the death of John F Kennedy on this day in 1963.

I was in my first year of the B.Sc. in Nursing course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and was living in Lower Mall residences for women. Having finished classes for the day I returned to my room in Hamber House to get my cafeteria card and head out to join the others for dinner.  

I dumped my books on my bed and switched on my dark brown Bakelite plug-in radio which sat on the window ledge. It was then that I heard the announcement.  I recall dropping down on to the bed utterly stunned!  It was because he was such a highly respected figure, so charismatic, so much part of American... and indeed, Canadian, culture!

 That's me in the middle (aged 19 years).

 The residents of Hamber House at the end of the university year in 1964.

When asking a friend today where he was when Kennedy was shot... he couldn't remember "probably working in the lab [doing chemical experiments]". However  he told me the following story:

He said that as a school boy he went to a school next to Edinburgh Castle.  He recalled that on the day in 1952 when they announced the death of King George VI it was decided to have a 58 gun salute*.

Why 58?... because the King, born in 1895 and died February 6, 1952, was 58 years old.  So once a minute for 58 minutes there was an almighty boom from the nearby cannon (presumably like the one above). He said that after about about 30 seconds you began to recover ... only to have to go through it again!

* Just as an open hand salute was used historically to demonstrate that no weapon was being held, a gun salute indicated the friendly intent of an empty ammunition chamber.

GRANDMA GETS READING No 2

Here are more books that Ishie has passed my way.  She is 12 years old and has an astonishing reading appetite!

[Source is https://www.goodreads.com]

[Source is http://www.betterreading.com.au

* * * * *  AND THESE ONES I CHOSE MYSELF * * * * * 

I heard this lady speak when were in Orkney.  This is the story of her life; she was brought up in a closed Christian sect in the UK.

As the cover says it is a "powerful exploration of the fault-lines between faith and doubt, duty and love."

I found it so refreshing to read a story which was well written.; it reminded me of Jeanette Winterston.

Lastly for that feel-good factor I never tire of Alexander McCall Smith. His characters are always dealing with topics to do with 'virtue' ... to be exact:

"...[ being a] trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standards. Doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong." [Wikipedia]

I feel this is certainly a Lost Art!  This book is more about the comings and goings of the Edinburgh characters with not too much development on this Lost Art of Gratitude... but an enjoyable, easy read for all that.

And lastly: His book 44 Scotland Street is a Classic in our household.  Auntie Iseabail (who died nearly 2 years ago) lived in Scotland Street in Edinburgh's New Town (i.e. Georgian, being 200 years old).  

The stories in this book started as a serial in The Scotsman, starting 26 January 2004, every weekday, for six months. The book retains the 109 short chapters of the original and is the first book in the series. The series has 12 books, as of Dec 2017.

The stories revolve around the comings and goings at No. 44 Scotland Street, a fictitious building in the street.

McCall Smith approached Iseabail some years ago asking if he could include her in his writing. She said that she was Ok with that.   I have tried to find the page but I could not; must be in one of the others in the series.  We have the newspaper page mounted in a frame with the date on it.  Watch this space.

SIGNS AND SAYINGS 2

 

Braehead October 2019 in the mall where a display (I think for a car) was being prepared.

Kirkwall Orkney shop on the main street 

Tea room in Helensburgh

Restaurant washroom in Glasgow

On the street in West End, Glasgow

* * * * * * * * 

A remark by Dorothy Parker on the Bloomsbury group:  they lived in squares, painted in circles and loved in triangles.

AN AUTUMN TRIP TO LOCH FYNE OYSTER BAR

We drove up to Loch Fine Oyster Bar to meet up with former students of Iain's from the 1970s.

It was a glorious day! The late autumn colours of deep red, orange and brown were giving a great show and the mountains tops had their first sign of winter.

Driving along  Loch Lomond side with the icy blue loch and the snow on the top of Ben Lomond.

The Rest and Be Thankful (pass between 2 valleys or 'glens' was partly in shadow but, again, wonderful dusting of snow on the mountain tops.

Approaching the top of the pass we noticed that the years of roadwork appears to be finished so hopefully any rockfalls for mud-slices can be averted or, at least, diverted.

The old road can be seen below.

At various points along the hour long run from Glasgow I continue to notice that stands of sitka spruce are showing signs of brown, i.e. dead, trees.

It reminded me of driving from Radium Hot Springs to Banff along the valley or trench in that part of the Rocky Mountains where mile and mile there were brown trees... presumably pine beetle infestation.

Iain tucked into a whole crab at The Oyster Bar.  Eight of us forgathered for lunch.

And that is Ben Lomond again at the end of the afternoon with the pink light or as they say in Scotland, the 'gloaming', in the foreground.

2019 CONCERT SEASON HAS STARTED

Now that we are heading into winter the season of concerts has started.  We have enjoyed 2 so far since we have moved from summer activities to winter.  

Clare Hammond, seriously fine pianist, played to a full audience on Friday.  Yes, we attend to meet and greet and this evening was no different. 

Rimsky Korsakov, Flight of the Bumblebee... she knows how to play up a storm, or should I say, a 'swarm' of bees!

Last month was the Esme Quartet from South Korea but based in Germany. 

Like so many of the artistes who visit, they arrive off the plane from far distant cities, having probably played previously the same day.  It's  a hard life!

* * * * *  AND EARLIER IN THE YEAR * * * * * 

We like to think they get a good welcome. However our northern latitude weather can be a bit disconcerting especially when you have to strap a cello to your back and pull a suitcase behind you!

* * * * *  AND ALSO * * * * *

Beth Taylor who lives locally is a mezzo soprano and is someone who is definitely going places.

Website https://bethmtaylor.com/gallery/