Category: Architecture

Paisley – 22 April 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Met Alex at the bus station in Glasgow and we walked down to Central station where we got the train to Paisley Gilmour Street station.

Ollie got home yesterday and I think the entire family is delighted with his progress. Alex, of course, had photos.

We got out at Paisley and walked through the town, had a bite to eat in Subway then got lost walking the wrong direction but found an old church at the end of a cobbled street at the top of a hill that looked interesting, so photos were taken. Further on another big sandstone church caught our eye and we spent some time there.

My phone was playing silly buggers and wouldn’t connect to the internet, but after a lot of swearing and a restart it was back in business and told me we were heading in exactly the wrong direction. We walked back through the town and passed a trio of blokes who were busking in the street. One of them looked familiar and the name “Rab Noakes” sprung into my head. I checked later and found I was right. I’m guessing he was just doing it for fun.

We manage half an hour in the Abbey and I got a few interesting photos of the stained glass windows, than we walked around and checked out the gargoyles, including the one that looks like the Alien from the movie.

I wanted some photos of Anchor Mill. Scamp and I have passed it many times driving through the town to go to the Paisley tea dance, but never had the time to stop and take some photos. Today was different. Not only had I the time and the company, I also had my ND filters and the attachments they needed to reduce the light getting in to the camera and allow me to use a slow shutter speed. Too much techy nonsense there, but basically I wanted to make the moving water look smooth and smoky. For once it worked a treat.

With that done, we were finished with our stated intentions and headed back to Glasgow on the train.

At St Enoch’s we bumped into Ross Malley and thankfully just missed his sister’s entourage as today was her hen party. I introduced him to Alex, we talked for a while, and then we went our separate ways. Alex and I walked up Bucky Street watched a street entertainer trying to whip up the Glasgow crowd to a frenzy and failing to encourage them to part with their cash for watching him jump through hoops of fire and knives.

We headed for our buses on opposite sides of the bus station and vowed we’d go back to Paisley again soon.

A shared Special fish supper bought on the way back home made a decent Friday night dinner for us. Scamp had been working in the garden and sowing some of the seeds she’d bought in the English garden centre.

The picture of Anchor Mill was PoD.

Tomorrow we’re dancing so we had a quick practise tonight.

Strathaven – 29 March 2022

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We went to Larky, but Millheugh was shut, locked and bolted.

Scamp was out in the morning to meet Shona for coffee and I was feeling a bit down. The sun had forgotten to get up today and it was grey skies all around. Then I told myself to get up off my backside, put my old boots on and get out into the garden and start by chopping down the kale.

The kale is past its best now and is beginning to shoot. It really needs to be cropped, chopped and frozen if we aren’t to lose it. That was the easy bit. The little leeks were next to go from the raised bed. For some reason they just never took off like they should have done. Maybe they weren’t fed enough, or the compost was exhausted, but it seemed to feed the kale without any problem. Whatever the reason, they were coming out today and going into the soup later. That almost cleared out the bed, but there was a little bunch of aqilegia that I’d sheughed in (dug a hole and shoved it in to be reclaimed later) last year some time. I dug it out, split it into two plants and repotted it.

I spread some of Scamp’s cure-all fertiliser, Fish, Blood and Bone over the bed and started to fork it in. That’s when I discovered that at least one edge board of the raised bet has rotted right through. It will have to be replaced, but I don’t think the rot has stopped there.

It was round about then, Scamp returned with a bag of rolls for lunch. Bacon roll for lunch for me. Roll ’n’ Cheese for Scamp. After lunch we got ready and drove to Larky to donate Scamp’s now redundant reading glasses to the opticians to go to folk who need them. I went to B&M to get some superglue to fix my old Flying Tiger specs. Then we drove down to Millheugh where the big grassy bank beside the Avon Water has been barricaded because of unexplained dangers I get the impression they barricades and signs aren’t all that official. No explanations why you can’t fish there either. That’s Larky for you. It’s a different world, beyond the law.

Since Millheugh was closed and the weather was improving, I thought we might drive to Stonehouse. Got there, but there wasn’t anything interesting to photograph, so we travelled on to Strathaven. Parked in the bit car park on the Park and went for a walk through what used to be a great park, and actually, it’s looking quite good again. Some work being done on sprucing up the flower beds. A brilliant mural on the gable end of the toilets. Obviously aimed at children with bright colours and things to find in the painting. I may post it on Flickr.

I was photographing the trees growing beside the Powmillon Burn when a man, about my age commented on the blossom on a fruit tree we’d just passed. He gave me directions to a place to photograph behind Strathaven Castle. We couldn’t go today, but I said I’d go back on a day with better lighting, and I meant it. Then the strangest thing happened, he told us that he’d been diagnosed with dementia. It’s one of those times when you don’t know what to reply. He said he had had the test but was quite dismissive about it. Neither of us thought he really believed it was true. I was right about his age. He was a year older than me. Also, he went to Larkhall Academy. In those days, children who went to Strathaven Academy would leave school after third year. Only a few came to Larkhall for fourth to sixth year. I would almost certainly have been there when he came to the Academy.

We drove home by a twisted, circuitous route that brought us back via Millheugh, then it was a straight road through Larky to the motorway and home. I made soup as I’d intended with the leeks and some kale with carrots, turnip and some lentils. It was really good. I was impressed, even if it was 7pm before we got to eat it with a roll each.

PoD was a shot of East Church House, now a hotel beside the Powmillon Burn.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

At the Battlefield – 18 March 2022

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A beautiful Friday morning.

Scamp drove over to Tesco to post Neil’s granny’s birthday card. Age 90 deserves a card on the day and by our calculations, the card should arrive on time if it was posted early.

After that, we just hung about, me doing Sudoku and Scamp reading until it was time to drive to Glasgow’s South Side to the Battlefield Rest. An independent Italian restaurant houses in a waiting room and tram stop! It’s a strange wee building that sits on its own traffic island at a complicated junction surrounded by ugly high-rise buildings. We were originally introduced to it by my cousin, Donald, an architect and fellow foodie. We had booked last night, just to make sure we’d get a table.

First problem was getting there. I missed a turning on the sat nav and the next one too. I took things a bit slower and found the third one, only to discover they were digging up the road and we had to take a diversion. After another wrong turn we arrived at Battlefield Road and every parking space I could see was either blocked or too small. Then, out of the blue, we found a nice big space just a few minutes walk from the restaurant.

Scamp had Mussels in a Tomato sauce to start and a main of Smokie Crepe. I had Crab Bruschetta, followed by Spaghetti Paesana (Spaghetti with meatballs). Just because we could, we both had a dessert. Scamp, of course had Tiramisu and I had Pecan and Pine Nut Tart with a big scoop of ice cream. A lovely meal we both enjoyed. It must be well over three years since we’ve been in The Rest. Hopefully it won’t be so long until we’re back.

Since it was such a lovely day we went for a walk over to Queen’s Park, marvelling at the changes in the area and the amount of construction work still going on. We climbed up the long unforgiving hill to the flagpole and viewpoint in Queen’s Park. Great views of Glasgow from the viewpoint, but oh, the cobbled paths are treacherous. We both nearly took a tumble there. Saw a couple of Pied Woodpeckers in the wee wood behind the flagpole. First ones I’ve seen since we were down at Jamie and Sim’s old house. You can sometimes hear them in the woods at Drumpellier, but I’ve never actually seen them there. We followed another treacherous path down to the real, tarmac path and followed it round the park to the exit and from there back to the car. It was a fairly easy drive from there to the M74 and home.
Today was rated as “Excellent” by both of us.

The weather was still fine when we arrived home and I was tempted to take the camera for a walk in St Mo’s, but I knew I had a couple of interesting shots, one of which would make PoD. I was wrong. It was a cropped shot of The Battlefield Rest suitably toned to make it look older. That won PoD.

I got an email from MPB telling me they had downgraded my estimate for the condition of the camera. I didn’t fully agree with their description, but agreed because I know it was a borderline case for “Excellent”. Their estimate of “Good” was probably more realistic. Money should be with us next week, hopefully.

It appears that despite some people withdrawing from dance class tomorrow, because the first dance of the year is on tomorrow night. We’d intend going to both, but Scamp made the decision to go to the class and possibly a tea dance during the week. We did have a quick practise of the Cha-Cha and the Waltz as preparation for tomorrow’s dance so, I shouldn’t  make too many mistakes.

If the weather holds tomorrow, we may go for a spin after the class, maybe to the seaside. I’m not sure if we’ll pack buckets and spades. However, I do still have a snow shovel in the boot!

 

Another day of dropping drops into eyes – 19 February 2022

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Or rather, eye, singular. The hard work probably starts next week when, hopefully there will be two to do!

Scamp wanted out today. She was fed up with hanging around the house and decided she’d risk a walk to take her new eye on a stroll around ‘The Policies’. We had a short jaunt around the torture machines then back up the hill and home. I think she enjoyed being out looking like a film star trying to look incognito with her dark sunglasses. They were necessary today. The optician at the hospital had recommended she wear them even if the sun wasn’t all that bright and it was really sparkly bright today, shining out of a blue sky and, because there was no wind, it wasn’t too cold either.

Back home and just before lunch, the second lot of drops went in. I remember having to put them in myself. Just getting excited about the clarity of what I was seeing, then having to put up with this milky white liquid blurring everything. It was only for a few minutes, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying.

After lunch I left Scamp to watch one of her Netflix movies and went out for a walk with the A6000. I’d taken the A7 in the morning walk, but didn’t take very many photos. The A6000 actually works really well with both the 50mm macro and the 28-70mm kit lens. Also, it’s about half the weight of the A7. I got a few photos, but my favourite, and PoD, was probably the fungus growing on an old dead tree. I say probably, because I’m thinking that one of the photos in the forest would look good too with a bit of work.

Dinner tonight was Fish ’n’ Chips from the Chippy in Condorrat. It was meant to be a Golden Bowl tonight, but they are closed for a fortnight for Chinese New Year and don’t open until Tuesday. Bummer. But the fish and chips were lovely. Two haddock fillets done in breadcrumbs. A ‘Special Fish’ in Scotland. It tastes great the first time, not so much the second and third time. After dinner, more drops. Then we watched To Catch A Thief. An ancient (1955) sort of whodunnit. The car chases were hilarious. Worth watching for that alone.

Today’s prompt was I Love Paris. I based the Sacré-Cœur sketch on a photo I’d taken in Paris in October 2003. I doubt if it will have changed much in the intervening 18 years or so. The line of trees will probably have grown a bit and there might be a few more tourists around it, but the building itself won’t have changed. I remember being mightily impressed with the architecture in Paris, although this one looks like a fire sale in a turret factory. “Room for just one more little turret?” “Yes, I think we can squeeze one in.” Still a beautiful building. I deliberately omitted the sky to let the building have pride of place. Also, I deliberately left in the pencil construction lines.

Tomorrow looks like it might be wet for most of the day. I believe the rain is practising outside as I write this. We’ll see what we get!

Walking in the rain – 15 February 2022

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This morning Scamp wanted to go for a walk.

After breakfast and after footering about for a while, Scamp said “I’m going for a walk”. I thought I’d better go with her just in case she dropped her glasses and couldn’t find her way home. Anyway, it was an opportunity to get a morning photo and maybe avoid having the go out later in the rain to get one.

We walked down to Broadwood, aiming to go round the boardwalk, then across the dam and up the hill to the shops to get milk on the way home. We were walking across the boardwalk when we felt the first drops of rain. It wasn’t too heavy at first, but soon settled into a soaking rain shower. We decided to cut out the walk over the dam and just walk to the shops. That was when the wind got up and we were feeling the full force of the rain blowing over the loch with no windbreaks to give us shelter. By the time we got to the stadium and some shelter from the rain and wind, we were already fairly wet. Bergy jackets are great for keeping your top half dry, but our jeans were just like blotting paper, soaking up the rain. We went to the shops and got milk and some oranges, then made our way home from there with a bit of blue sky here and there letting us know that the worst of the rain had gone.

After lunch and still footering about Scamp suggested we eat out of the freezer today. It was a good idea as the freezer is getting stuffed with food and we really could do with eating some of it instead of throwing it out when it finally goes out of date. That’s what we did, except, Scamp changed her mind and instead of the fish she was going to have, made a ratatouille instead, but keeping to the ethos of ‘eat out of the freezer’ she ate out our the fridge instead. I had a tub of mince ragu in the freezer and that would make a good sauce for some pasta. Scamp went further by making shortcrust pastry for a rhubarb & ginger pie. I’d plenty of time until I needed to defrost and cook my ragu, so it was boots on again and off to St Mo’s to bolster the few photos I’d taken in the morning. PoD came from that walk. It’s a macro of the fruiting bodies of moss plants. I find them fascinating.  Also worth noting is that today’s PoD is the 3,333rd photo to be nominated PoD in the ten years of 365s!

Dinner was good and we both have some left over for tomorrow’s lunch. Rhubarb & ginger pie was fine, but although the pastry was excellent, the rhubarb was a bit tasteless, Scamp thought and I chipped in with the ginger being a bit tough. As I was in charge of chopping up the ginger, I have to shoulder half the blame.

Today’s prompt was Up On The Roof. I’m fairly happy with that music and familiar with it too, however with two named storms due to make landfall in the next few days, ’up on the roof’ was not a place I wanted to be. Instead I drew on an old favourite of mine and sketched one of the gargoyles from Notre-Dame long before the fire. I hope these stone devils made it through the flames.
My apologies to any French people viewing this as I’ve take a few liberties with the architecture of Paris :-\

Tomorrow the first of the storms is set to come our way. Different reports give different scenarios. Hopefully it will just be a glancing blow we’ll get and not a full on body punch. I don’t see us going very far.

Off to Hospital – 9 December 2021

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Not for me, Scamp’s visit to Hairmyres.

We left in plenty of time for Scamp’s 10am appointment. I made sure she got to the correct area of this gigantic building. Actually a much airier building than many of its like and with Christmas decorations on all the doors, it was more welcoming than most. After that, I headed for the shopping centre, just to be nosey and to compare it with our megalithic atrocity. It won by a mile, no, make that a hundred miles. Clean, well lit and with many more shops. Very few shuttered shops and no closed off areas. Yes, this was a shopping centre, not a disaster area. Only sore point was that you had to pay to park, but a quid wasn’t going to break the bank for an hour’s stay.

Took some photos of the outside of the building and tried not to compare with the collapsing Town Centre we have. Then I found my way to Calderglen Park. The last time we were there, the place was a mess with ongoing works designed to mess up the traffic flow. Nothing had changed. The last time we were there, there was no notice to show you where the entrance to the park was. Nothing had changed there either. It seems that North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire are joined by more than their surnames. In other words, both as crap as each other. But there was a shining light in the park, the wee cafe, the Courtyard Cafe to give it’s full name. I had a roll ’n’ sausage with fried onions and a mug of coffee for just over six quid. I was pleased with that. Good roll ’n’ sausage, award winning fried onions and, ok, the coffee was a bit of a letdown, but you can’t have everything. There was blue sky when I had arrived, but when I left the clouds had rolled in and it looked like rain was on the way.

I was just thinking I should head back to the hospital when Scamp phoned to say that she too was having coffee (but without sausage or fried onions) and then she told me she’d have to wait at least 10 months for the operation. Almost a year to wait for a cataract removal! Is it any wonder that people are going private? Apart from that, she seemed satisfied with the consultation and of course because it was NHS, we’d already paid for it with our NI contributions. But still, at least 10 months. Factor in the uncertainty with Covid restrictions and what are we talking about? 18 months? 2 YEARS?! Who knows.

Drove home discussing the implications of what she’d heard today and wondering where it took us. Back home and after lunch I had a look at the photos and although I’d taken a few at Calderglen, it was the architectural ones from the EK shopping centre that were the most interesting to me. It’s one of them that got PoD.

We’d brought the tree down from the loft yesterday and today was the day to put it up. That’s really Scamp’s job. Even with her present limited vision, she is far better at lighting and dressing a Christmas tree. With some Christmas cards hung up and some decorations, the place is looking quite festive. All I did was put batteries in the little strings of lights that are scattered round the living room.

I phoned Virgin Media tonight to sort out a problem with accessing some websites. As far as I can see there is something different in the DNS coding/decoding of the relatively new modem we have. After being on the phone for half an hour or so, I managed to convince the lady on the other end that something was awry. She agreed that it would be best to send out an engineer (possibly to get rid of me). He/she is coming on Sunday. We’ll see what they can suggest. Knowing my expertise with modems it will be a simple fix and it may cost us £25 if there is no fault with the hardware. It’ll be worth it to be able to access websites properly and at least we don’t have to wait ten months for someone to fix it!

One last thing.  I saw this on FB today, attributed to Chris Riddell political cartoonist on a sketch of a certain British Prime Minister:

I’m really sorry that the British public found out about the party that didn’t happen last Christmas, but the person who laughed about not being at the party that didn’t happen has resigned and I have appointed someone who might have been at that party that didn’t happen to investigate … Now please wear a mask the way I don’t …

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow in Glasgow. I intend to drive in that means I don’t have to sit on a bus or a train with the great unwashed. Don’t know where we’ll go. It’ll be a surprise!

 

Like being on holiday – 13 November 2021

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Back to our regular Saturday class, in a different venue.

Breakfast in the restaurant of the hotel. Just like being on holiday in Lanzarote or Fuerteventura, but just a tad cooler. Not self service either, but the same food choices. Tinned fruit cocktail for each of us, then a choice of eggs, sausage (veg and pork) hash browns, beans, tomatoes and bacon. I suppose you could have had all of the above if you wanted, but we restricted ourselves to what we felt was appropriate. Restaurant was busy, but we got the chance to share a table, strangely enough with two of the folk who had been at our table last night.

After breakfast, Scamp and I went for a walk through the town that was just waking up. Strange to see Perth at this early hour. We walked down to ‘The Ship’ which is really the viewing platform. A curved platform that cantilevers out over the river and gives you the feeling that you are indeed on a ship. Walked back to the hotel ready to start the class.

The lesson today was the Vogue Waltz. As usual, it looked impossible when the teachers danced it through. Then we had the step by step walk through and it began to look possible. Danced the whole thing and the individual figures began to fit together. The problem, as always would be when we tried to dance it again after an hour or so.

Afternoon was free time. We went for a coffee in Nero then walked over the middle bridge of the three over the river to the gardens on the other side. Bright sunny autumn day. Beautiful colours in the trees and we found a couple of ponds with great reflections of the church. Walked down as far as the railway bridge and then walked back through the gardens to the upstream bridge. Watched two punters, one in a kayak and the other on a paddle board making light work of the rapids below the bridge. Got some coffee, tea and a replacement plunger for my Aeropress at the Bean Shop. By then we decided it was lunch time and I suggested a pizza in Pizza Express. I had a pizza, Scamp had a chicken salad. Both filled a wee space! Time to go back and get ready.

Posh frock and suit for dinner. It was meant to be a black tie event. I had a black tie, but no black suit, so my dark grey one would have to do. Dinner was much the same as the yesterday’s. Service was even slower than usual. Waiter seemed to stomp of in the huff when a bloke at our table complained of a draught from the door into the kitchen. He didn’t seem to want to serve the coffee after the meal. Eventually Scamp had to ask for coffee and he did serve it, if reluctantly. You just can’t get the staff these days. We were a full complement at the table tonight with a couple from Dundee taking the last two seats. Bloke as a bit of a pain, complaining that they shouldn’t have same sex couples on Strictly and that they needed a man and a woman as presenters, not two women. His wife was extremely condescending and just wanted to talk about herself and her family. Nice dancers, nasty people. Glad when they had to leave early.

We danced all night, completing another two salsa routines with Peter and Gillian. Was that ‘completing’ or ‘competing’? I’m not too sure! It was fun whatever slant you take.

Dragged ourselves off to bed just after midnight.

Today’s PoD was that reflection of the church I mentioned.

Just an hour’s ‘tea dance without the tea’ tomorrow. Then it’s the long road home.

Walking in sunshine! – 9 November 2021

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Out photographing with Alex.

I’d watched the weather predictions for this week and Tuesday looked like the best day. Alex and I agreed that we’d go and walk round Baron’s Haugh which is another name for the Dalzell estate on the outskirts of Motherwell. It dates from around 840 when it was a Royal Hunting Forest. Today it’s a maze of roads and paths with lots of odd buildings dotted around the grounds. We walked round the south side of the park, taking the path between the wildlife pond and the River Clyde. Lots of evidence of flooding with the path having been swept away recently.

After we reached the end of the path and after Alex had consulted his Photographer’s Ephemeris app, he decided that the light would be just right for some decent photos of the Big Hoose, Dalzell House. On the way we passed the Japanese garden and made a mental not to go back and photograph the Japanese maples there after we’d photographed the house. We did get a few shots of the house, trying for the best angle to capture the light on the building, but lose the cars in the carpark. We were just finishing when a bloke came out of one of the cars with a tall monopod with what looked like a GoPro on top. It was a telescopic monopod, as most of them are, but this one extended to about 15m! Although there was very little breeze today, there was enough to cause a bit of a sway at the top. He seemed to be using a phone to control the camera. I hoped he had set a fast shutter!

We walked on because the best of the light had left the building and we walked back to the Japanese garden. Talked to one of the gardners who was sweeping up those red maple leaves. It turned out he was in charge of a group of volunteers who were cleaning up the garden and the burn that runs through it. He was happy for us to photograph the trees gave us free rein to take photos.

By the time we had finished there and said goodbye to the gardener, the light was definitely on the way to the horizon and it was time to go. Dropped Alex off at his house and drove home with really dark clouds ahead of me and the prospect of rain that didn’t appear.

While I was out with Alex, Scamp was out for coffee with Shona so she could hand over our house warming present. Yes, Jamie, it was towels!

Dinner tonight was Scampi chips and tomatoes. Scampi, which was baked in the oven, we agreed was just ok. Not sure we’d have it again.

PoD was one of the views of the Big Hoose after some delicate Lightroom work to remove offending cars.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. Perhaps not quite as much sunshine.

Family Photography – 24 September 2021

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Today I was going to Glasgow on the train, to meet my brother. Unfortunately the Wee Red car wouldn’t take us to the station.

A rattle from the starter made me think it was a flat battery, except the battery was only a year old. Starter motor? I had a look under the bonnet, but there was nothing to see. Nothing loose, battery connections tight. Not sure if the RAC would come to the house, because we don’t have Home Start. The simple answer would be for Scamp to drive me there in the Blue Micra, but she’s only driven it once or twice a year ago. However, she stepped up to the plate, locked the red car and got into the driver’s seat of the Blue Micra. She drove me to the train station and I had plenty of time to get a ticket and get on the train. Meanwhile she texted me to say she had parked at Tesco.

I wandered round Bucky Street, because I was a bit early and it was a lovely clear morning, which was a change from the soaking Scottish drizzle at Croy station. I sat on the steps of the Concert Hall and took a few 18mm photos down Bucky Street to St Enoch at the bottom and on to the M74 in the distance with just the hint of Queens Park on the South Side. I was wearing a red carnation so he’d recognise me, but I spotted him first. Even from the back he was recognisably Alex. We met halfway up the stairs and after a quick hug we walked up Sausageroll Street.

Alex wanted to photograph some architecture and I suggested St Aloysius church on Rose Street. I really like this building and did a pen sketch of it some years ago. I can’t remember ever photographing it though. Maybe I did, but it’s so tall and there is no room to get distance to it, I don’t think any of my lenses could have coped with it. The 18mm managed it today. From there we walked down towards the motorway and more importantly the beautiful wedge shaped ex-bank on Shamrock Street. Glasgow’s version of the ‘Flat Iron’ building. While we were photographing it an older lady stopped to ask if we were interested in the building. She told us she lived in it and gave us a bit of its history. Built in 1909 and designed by architect Neil C. Duff. She said it was good that some people were interested enough in the building to photograph it. We thanked her and said our goodbyes.  Today’s PoD was a view of the front door of the ex-bank.

From there Alex wanted to photograph some modern day graffiti on the Chinese Supermarket across the street. Then we went for a coffee in Costa and compared notes. Next stop was Union Street for a bit of tech shopping, but the actual purchase didn’t happen because the queue was far too long. More graffiti on Mitchell Street (the lady picking people off the street), then a delightful tea and cake in the Willow Tea Rooms on Bucky Street. Never been in there before, but would go back again for the carrot cake!

All too soon it was time to go. We’d had a fairly comprehensive walk and photo shoot around central Glasgow. I got the bus home and Alex headed for the train. We’ve vowed to meet up again soon in two or three weeks, depending on the weather. I thoroughly enjoyed today. We will do it again.

Back home I brought tonight’s dinner. A small fish supper for Scamp and a single large fish for me. I needed that after a day of sugar overload. Found the battery in the car was completely flat. It’s been lying dormant for a long time, so maybe it needs to keep its wheels turning, or maybe there’s something more wrong. I’m suspecting a flat battery caused by a dodgy alternator, but we’ll get a charger tomorrow and try that first. One step at a time. That might be the theme for today.

No plans for tomorrow except charging a battery.

Brough Castle revisited – 11 September 2021

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First day walk about.

We drove into Kirkby Stephen which is the nearest town and parked at the main carpark beside the auction mart. Carpark was really busy, even for a Saturday, but we found a space. The church bells were ringing and we assumed it was a wedding. Lots of well dressed people heading for the church and that’s what initially gave Scamp the inkling that it wasn’t a wedding. They weren’t dressed for a wedding apparently. It turned out it was it was a memorial for a woman called Joan Johnstone who was an important local Councillor.

We walked over Frank’s Bridge. Not a clue who Frank was, then around the cricket pitch looking for the path to take us up to the viewpoint on the hill which sort of overlooks the town. Eventually found that I’d led us the wrong way. How strange! 😏. We walked back, but couldn’t find any place to have lunch. Everywhere was full or closed. Presumably so the owners could get to the memorial service. Scamp got ten allium bulbs from the same shop we bought last year’s bulbs from and they turned out so well. With that done we chose to drive to Brough to see if it was open today.

Brough wasn’t nearly as big as Kirkby Stephen. It seemed to comprise of two streets at right angles to each other and a whole host of scarecrows. Lots of the houses had these, sometimes creepy, statues outside. We didn’t stop, but we did find a sign pointing to Brough Castle which we’d visited many years ago. When we stopped there on the way home from a visit down south we had lunch at the tea shop there and today we were happy to see it was still there. There were loads of scarecrows in the surrounding streets too, but not as creepy as the ones in Brough. After coffee and a warm, but not hot, panini each we went for a walk round the castle. The views from it were excellent and all under a blue sky with bubbly clouds too. I took lots of photos and so did Scamp. We walked round the village next and took in the Scarecrow Festival, because that’s what it was.

PoD was a view of Brough Castle with a few sheep and a horse to fill up that empty green space.

Jamie and Simonne were cooking tonight. Beetroot falafels with a green salad – we must try that.

Watched the strange new qualifying for F1 tonight understood it a bit more than last time.  Then we watched a few episodes of Spitting Image which was repeats on Britbox and therefore slightly out of sync with life in 2021, but still funny.

Tomorrow we may go for a longer walk along the viaduct path.