Andrew MacLaren-Scott's Blog, page 50
August 1, 2016
My lady relaxes
She did not know a thing about the danger ahead, but I managed to negotiate the arch and miss the traffic, however... a hefty squirrel then either fell or jumped into the boat from an overhanging tree through there. It made a heck of a thud, appeared rather stunned, then leapt out onto the bank in a truly impressive feat of animal athleticism. Madness in the boat.
July 31, 2016
July 26, 2016
Pittenweem
A day trip to the East Neuk of Fife under high clouds breaking to allow occasional sunshine. Coffees, wanderings and fish and chips. Occasional quiet interactions with strangers from various lands - smiles and nods and the exchange of pleasantries. One could almost imagine that the world is a peaceful and contented place. If only...
July 24, 2016
July 22, 2016
July 21, 2016
Great Glasgow
A day in Glasgow can be very good, especially in the sunshine and with a fine street musician playing haunting lilts on an electric guitar. The man has clearly lived a bit, at least as long as me while keeping his hair, unlike me, and managing to look just so much more in tune with his world than I could ever manage. He was so good I had to return and add a further donation to my first one.
The city must have been quite something in its mercantile heydey, perhaps in the 1800s, with so many magnificent stone buildings and none of today's plastic and tat; but I certainly approve of the new use as a coffee house that has been found for this magnificent little construction of old stone:
We also found a splendid place to eat:
and I even managed a somewhat epiphanic moment while listening to the sweet guitar notes, wandering along to the old Tron clock, and realising that my priorities really needed to be realigned again as the sunshine warmed my neck and I gradually felt the next move forward crystallise in my thoughts.
All thanks to sunshine, old Glasgow stone and the great grey-haired guitar guy of Argyll Street.
The city must have been quite something in its mercantile heydey, perhaps in the 1800s, with so many magnificent stone buildings and none of today's plastic and tat; but I certainly approve of the new use as a coffee house that has been found for this magnificent little construction of old stone:
We also found a splendid place to eat:
and I even managed a somewhat epiphanic moment while listening to the sweet guitar notes, wandering along to the old Tron clock, and realising that my priorities really needed to be realigned again as the sunshine warmed my neck and I gradually felt the next move forward crystallise in my thoughts.
All thanks to sunshine, old Glasgow stone and the great grey-haired guitar guy of Argyll Street.
July 20, 2016
North Berwick
...on a day when violent thunderstorms and downpours mixed with sunshine and heat - nature at its most magnificent. This summer season is proving very pleasant, with steady work on the laptop mixed in with travels on a whim. How did we ever manage without laptops and wifi? I used to write books and articles on a typewriter with liquid whitener or the angry crumpling of pages as the only option for correction or change, oh and some articles used to be dictated laboriously down the phone to a copyist in London. How did I ever manage? Anyway, lunch at the Scottish Seabird Centre was very fine, looking out at the white-encrusted Bass Rock and thinking how much more picturesque it sounds to say it is coated in rich guano rather than just covered in bird shit.
July 19, 2016
July 18, 2016
In Dundee
Dundee has a reputation for being rather dismal but this is undeserved, or at least has become so in recent years, and a day in Dundee can be rather fine. Dundee is a city getting better. The waterfront is magnificent on a sunny day, of which there are many more than the city's rather grey reputation would suggest, and the tide rushes in and out of the wide Firth of Tay at a surprising pace. Sitting by the Caird Hall in the city square I watched seagulls swooping in the sunshine over peaceful humanity speaking in many tongues. I think the couple who politely asked if they could sit next to me may have been Mexican, and while they agreed with me that the pale sunshine through hazy cloud was nice, they nevertheless offered the view that, "sun lotion will not really be required for us in Scotland." I also heard some French people, sadly discussing why the sole decoration on just one of the Caird Hall's many flagpoles today was the French flag at half mast, as far as my limited grasp of their language could comprehend; and I heard some Italian, I think, in addition, of course, to deep Dundonian. Dundonian is a version of English, but not one that all English speakers can readily comprehend, and nor would they wish to, on occasion, given what is sometimes being discussed. I sat, I wandered, and I looked at it all and listened, while having a fine time in sunny Dundee.
