OUT AND ABOUT

Summer photos...

Anne's garden - evidence of heavy rain!

Anne's garden - Hosts with a visiting bee

In the garden (with a glass of wine) looking over the fennel seed head to afternoon sky

Levengrove Park - hogweed on the Allander early evening

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A 'GOOD' SUMMER

Ishbel and I continue to enjoy a very quiet week reading in the garden and then taking a wee trip out to somewhere interesting.  In the morning we paint and then in the afternoon we head off.

When at Waterstones earlier this week I bought Richard Coles recent book (his first novel but not his first book) called 'Murder Before Evensong'.  So far it reminds me of Alexander McCall-Smith but set in the Anglican Church community.

Quite by accident I opened a bottle of my favourite wine, Fitou.  After tasting it (exceedingly good and better than my usual purchases) I found it to be 2017.  I resolved to be more selective in my purchases i.e. spend a bit more and get a bottle that has been aged longer!)

Gerry, across the road, turned up at the door with a tub of his just-picked gooseberries.  That calls for gooseberry pie (maybe apple and gooseberry?) as I think I am, as usual, the only who will eat it.

For our afternoon jaunt Ish and I drove to Campsie Glen and walked up to the little waterfalls at the head of the glen.  On the way back we explored the very old, very large and very neglected churchyard.  This inscription caught my eye.  It refers to one McFarlane Esq whose life's purpose was to 'do good'.  It struck a chord as that is what McCall-Smith often writes about, and of course, so did Iris Murdoch:

And finally, the work of a long forgotten stone-mason caught my eye.

HUCKLEBERRY FINN SUMMER

Ishbel and I are together this week while Iain is with the rest of the gang in Arran.

Before he left he and Ishbel complete a joinery project in the garden.  

Ishbel has now painted the cedar shakes using leftover Farrow and Ball paint that I used for the garage door.  

Meanwhile I dug out a tub of Hammerite (black paint for metal surfaces) and painted the very rusty boundary fence... reminding me of Huckleberry Finn!

The weather has been extremely hot all over the UK. Very much Shuswap weather!  It certainly reminded me of hot days picking cherries where, at the end of the day, we jumped into the half ton, leaving in a cloud of dust to head to the beach.

No lake for us so we simply slump in the garden chairs and spend the time reading. I absolutely love Alexander McCall Smith and this book "The Lost Art of Gratitude" is one I enjoy re-reading.

Our one foray out from the house has been to Waterstone's at Braehead.  (We did make a trip to Edinburgh on Monday probably won't repeat that as the weather has been so hot adversely affecting rail lines.  Also the trains are quite busy with summer visitors.)

At Braehead I  parked the car along the riverbank and as soon as I had done so I turned around when I heard the familiar sound of the paddle wheeler "The Waverley" coming down the river. 

After we got our book haul at Waterstone's I took a swing by Renfew Ferry slipway.  We used to keep the boat at Renfrew Boat Yard, near here. To my surprise I found a very small boat offering a ferry service over to the other side (Yoker).  

Tesco car park sometimes offers a view of the steeple of St Paul's Church in Milngavie.    I use these photos for local shots where I might need to put in some text.

FLOWER POWER

I have discovered a new 'search' facility on my iPhone.  It is Google Lens.

Instead of downloading an app to identify, for example, a plant, I found that the job can be done in Google, by clicking on the right-hand image in the screenshot below.  It is located on the far right of the Google 'SEARCH' field. See arrow in photo.

Using the photo you have taken with your iPhone, you simply find it in your iPhone and it gives you the answer!  Amazing! 

This was the flower in the garden that I was trying to identify.

The answer is that it is Sisyrinchium Sapphire or possibly Vellum; I can't see the difference. 

 It is a member of the iris family, quite tiny and the flowers I have open and close with the morning and evening light respectively.

CURIOUS INSECTS

I paid a visit to an old haunt of mine this week.  Loch 27 pub on the Forth and Clyde Canal has a pub that I used to visit when I worked near it 30 years ago.

Sitting outside at the picnic table on the edge of the canal is a perfect spot to watch the bird life.  Two swans were enjoying the lovely weather along with the rest of folk enjoying their pints.

I took the above photos with my iPhone as one of the swans was having its morning tidy-up.  It was only when I got the photos on the computer I saw that the swan is out of focus and ... better yet... in focus is a winged insect on the white  flower (hogweed?).  I don't think it's a butterfly; maybe a moth?

It reminded me of this painting in The National Gallery in London.  Painted in 1471 by an unknown European (roughly present day Germany) not a lot is known about the subject (except for a title indicating she was of the Hofer  family and that she is holding a forget-me-not flower).  What is intriguing is the fly on her head-dress.  Curious that!  Many theories abound... but simply beautifully painted!