I was off this afternoon with my brother to see a ruin.
In the morning I thought we’d made a bit mistake. There was sunshine early in the morning, but that didn’t last and the clouds started rolling in. Were we even going to any light on the building? Maybe not. Then, just after lunchtime the clouds began to thin and the sun was trying to get out. It might just work after all.
I picked up my brother just before 2pm and we drove to Wishaw. We had both checked when the light was in the best position for photographs of this ruin using The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) and Photopills both confirmed that the sun would be in the best position between 3pm and 4pm and we were heading directly at that time.
We parked at a burger van car park and walked down a private road. We couldn’t drive along it, but it was a sunny day and we had agreed that we’d go for a photoWALK today, so we walked. We walked for half a mile downhill and found Cambusnethan Priory sitting there. No barricades, no chain link fence, nothing to stop us wandering around this 19th century ruin. Halfway up one wall of the entrance there is a small sign warning you not to enter the building. That is the preventative measure. We wandered round taking pictures all the time. Of course, neither of us went into the building itself, because we’d read that small notice. The good light had gone behind a cloud now, it might have seen us coming down that long hill. It didn’t stop us taking photos. I don’t know how many my brother took, but my total was 54 photos taken of which 6 were rejected, so 48 keepers. The PoD turned out to be a view of the front of the building reflected in a very dirty, very big puddle. A ‘Puddle Pic’ my brother called it.
Now, what goes down must go up again. We packed our bags and climbed that big hill, and it was a big hill. We stopped once to look at a hole in a telegraph pole or maybe it was a power cable it was carrying. It was a wooden pole with a neat oval hole about three or four metres up from the ground. The hole was about 10cm high by about 5cm at its widest. It was neatly chiselled out probably by a beak. I’m glad I saw it, because it gave me an excuse for a rest. When we turned around the sun was shining brightly again and we both wanted to go back down and have another chance of some better lit photos, but we knew that wily sun was watching us and it would hide behind a cloud as we reached the building. We walked on and were on the longer, straighter part of the walk. This time I made it a request that we stop to get my breath back. That’s what’s wrong with St Mo’s. It’s a great place to wander round, but there’s not nearly enough hard climbing. I might go out every day, but I’m just doing easy climbs. Must try harder (climbs!). We walked on after watching the colours change on the trees.
I was glad when we were back on the level, potholed, puddled path again and even happier when we were on our way back into Motherwell. Dropped my brother off and we agreed we needed another day at Cambusnethan Priory.
Drove home to find that Scamp was making Prawn & Pea Risotto for dinner. All the chopping had been done and she was waiting for me to arrive so the cooking could begin. That was lovely risotto. Best I’ve tasted for ages.
Tomorrow were on the road again.