DAFFS FOR THE DUKE

I just can't get enough of this season's daffs. Everyone remarks that they seem to have bigger heads and are more colourful than other years. Perhaps it was something to do with all that cold weather we had in December and January.

The graveyard outside Stirling Castle, at the back of Holyrood Church (Church of Scotland) had them in profusion. The tourist hoards have not arrived yet so it was very pleasant just wandering around the graveyard reading the stones and enjoying the flowers.

While there are many large headstones and monuments in this graveyard the ones that caught my eye were these two. The lettering below the carved angel above is " .... AANDREA" which I think is probably "ALEXANNDREA". I don't know the story here.

This appears to be a very old headstone. I am guessing that is an angel at the top, a shaft of a spade on the left and I don't know the right-hand shape.

Meanwhile back in Glasgow today I noticed these daffs inserted into the bas-relief sculpture which is on the base of the Duke of Wellington's statue outside the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Queen Street. This statue with the traffic cone on his head is one of my favourite Glasgow "icons" (well... everybody else uses that word...).

I spent a couple of hours in GoMA chilling out after a session of music page turning. (More on this anon.) Upon leaving at 4 pm I took this photo (2 up) of his Lordship - the Duke of Wellington - on his horse accompanied by a couple of Glasgow pigeons.

In order to make him harmonize (well, I had been with Mozart and Brahms for 2 hours....) with his plinth I gave him a bunch of daffs to hold!