Saturday 17 April 2021

WEEK 56 CORNOVIRUS: LEVEL 4 LOCKDOWN EASED - OUTDOORS SOCIALIZING POSSIBLE NOW

The bunting came out this week as we can now officially have 6 people from different households to visit as long as it is outside.  So Maggie and Brian came over with their bottle of NZ New Marlborough wine.  The sky was the bluest I've seen it in months!  We had a debate about this: is it because we have just come out of winter? Is is because restrictions are now starting to ease and it reflects (sorry for the pun...) our ache for freedom of movement? Is it because of the lattitude we live? It is to do with the nature or quality of the air, i.e. fresh, a certain level of humidity due to the climate?   In any event we sat in the back garden and just soaked it up as well as the ever-increasing heat of the afternoon sun.


The children of all ages go back to school on Monday - roll on the day!  They have been in a state of pseudo-hibernation for months.  To that end Ishbel and I went out for an 'inventure'... which means we don't quite know where we are going but will see what turns up.

We ended up at the Forth and Clyde Canal just east of Kirkintilloch.  I took these photos.




This is exactly how it appeared i.e. no Photoshoped adjustments. It is early afternoon facing east about 1 mile east of Kirkintilloch.

As we walked along the canal I was reminded of the above painting which is in the Burrell Collection. It is by a Scottish landscape artist:

The Last Turning, Winter, Moniaive by James Paterson (1854-1932). Painted in 1885, it depicts a woman walking along a riverbank towards the village of Moniaive in Dumfriesshire.  

[Burrell Collection Photo Library]

* * * * * * * * * ANOTHER CANDIDATE FOR THE BOOK OF BAD DESIGN ** * * * * * * * 

Ishbel and I are aching for the Braehead Mall to open which means a trip to Waterstones and then a pizza at Cafe Nero.

She reads avidly; I less so.  That being said recently I have enjoyed 3 Alexander McCall-Smith books I picked up in Tesco's in their Take One-Leave One bookshelf opposite the checkout.


Last month I heard one 15 minute episode of the above book called The Snow and the Works on the Northen Line on Radio 4.  It is by Ruth Thomas and published by Sandstone Press of Inverness with the publication date of 2021.  Editor: Moira Forsyth.

I was reading it in bed and found two things: I can't recognise the story ... very odd... but leave that aside just now....and secondly, I  just couldn't get the book open enough to read the text on the inner left side. Huh?  What's all that about?  I have just about had my fill of books with typos, poor grammar which,  on my most recent experience, was a self-published or should I say 'hybrid' book.  But this book had a cover which was not cheap and the type was clear; certainly no typos. Paper quality - not CheapO.

I looked up the printing details: 'Typeset by Biblichor Ltd, Edinburgh' and 'Printed in Poland'.  Well, somebody, somewhere has done something amiss here. And the book cost £8.99..... The photo shows an outside margin of 5/8 inch on left and right pages.  The inner margins are 1/4 inch. 

I am going to have to add it to my list of Bad Design which is so often about really basic stuff either missing or badly done.  Yawn....



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