Wednesday, 22 July 2015
Have you spotted the cat on the fence? Behind the right light-post? Stretched out like the owner of the property?
Cats!
No popup showers today, and the afternoon sunshine broke up coming through the stained-glass window that has only clear glass…but beveled panels….
UPDATE: umhem, yes, we did have a popup shower…I was distracted, and forgot when I was typing earlier…fact is, the rain-time was brief and we mostly had sunshine….
Tuesday, 21 July 2015
I was out early, sweat sweat. Not bragging. It’s just the way it is. We got a pop-up shower yesterday, so steaminess conditions were/are elevated.
Like this atypically tall crepe myrtle very much. Most people butcher them periodically, leaving ugly stubs to generate new shoots. Nice to see that they can achieve heights taller than a one-story house.
Monday, 6 July 2015
Before the rain arrived in late afternoon, I went down to the beach. See how the sky is already anticipating the incipient precipitation?
The wind has kicked up the waves, and they are toying with the dock. Love the bubbled, lacy look of the thin and thinning leading-edge of the wave on the sand-shore. It’s only there a heartbeat before gravity triumphs, and the cycle launches again.
As I was returning to the cottage, I discovered this moth artfully resting on a daisy. If I’d paid more attention I would have gotten a less blurry shot.
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Mostly, today’s theme was windy. With rain. Not mist. The big drops—Rain with a capital R.
We have used Miss Voice and blue-dot navigation throughout our trip. The way G**gleMaps is set up, the voice informs of a pending roundabout, with which “exit” to take. This is almost always accurate (unless there’s new construction), but the thing that confounds us is that when you are in the roundabout, you are told to exit on a certain named street. It is a rare roundabout that has a street name. Route numbers, towns, yes; but no street names. This custom/programming choice introduces confusion….
This morning we had an unexpected two-fer. We set out for the soundstage where Outlander (Starz version) is being shot. It’s in that grey-blue building in the center-background. The trucks area gate was open, but the walk-up/reception gate was locked up tight. There was a special instruction sign for people who came for costume fittings.
Here’s the two-fer part. We tried an escape out the back of the industrial park that became a dead-end, and…found a sign…for the Antonine Wall! (I said no more Romans…oops.) Yup, I could see the wall ditch, etc. extending each way from the sign, left and right at this angle. A fine surprise!
We also made a fast stop to see the market street of Kilsyth. This is another town where the Livingstons of a dozen generations back in my ancestry lived. It was then called Monyabroch (ca. 1500s).
The bar—excuse me: pub to the right is called the Scarecrow. Would sometime love to hear the story behind that! (Another pint, please!)
Regarding the sign to the left, how confusing is it for a butcher shop to list a cut of meat for XYZ pounds per pound (that is £XYZ per pound).
We parked just off Market Street at Market Square, very lucky to find a space on a rainy morning…. Note that this alley leading upward is named U.P. LANE. It leads up to U.P. ROAD. Both may refer to United Presbyterian (church). No one making internet entries seems to be sure. I took it as a ghostly link to descendants of the Livingstons with connections to way northern Michigan….
Let’s wrap this with some architecture bits….
Unusual bridge in Glasgow…a single arch that crosses over the carriageway deck.
More red sandstone…like St. Andrews Cathedral, and many, many more buildings. I haven’t seen any quarries identified as for this stone, but there must be big holes out there where it all came from…. I don’t know if I’ve been seeing façades etc. of Old Red Sandstone or New Red Sandstone—or both. I think both are common outcrops….
Fine lighthouse…we bagged joining the locals spending their Saturday at venues we had some interest in, and visited a mall (Starbucks) and drove along the Firth of Clyde, then more of the Firth of Clyde…. So we saw many navigation features on land and sea, breaking waves (splash!), and even a spot of sunshine. It came out when we were just past this lighthouse…brilliant for maybe four minutes….
Just one more of those “original” or “first place in Scotland” comments…. We’re overnighting in Ayr. Scotland’s first parliament was held here in 1315, lead by Robert the Bruce (aka Robert de Brus, in Norman), who ruled from 1306–1329. He’s the one who won at Bannockburn, where we began our day, in 1314….
Also, Ayr is often listed as the birthplace of the poet Robert Burns. It was really in Alloway, but that village is now in the Ayr metro area…so I guess it’s all the same….
Thursday, 4 June 2015
Possibly the oldest tree in Britain, the Fortingall yew is 2000–3000 years old. It’s behind the wall with the vertical stones on top. The center is gone, and it’s now three remnants of its one-time girth.
Still seeing snow remnants on peaks.
Loch Rannoch. We came here to visit the Black Wood of Rannoch, considered among the oldest forests in Britain. It seemed to me that the section we walked in had a few older trees, all twisted and looking like loggers had left them behind as not long-tall enough, interspersed among newer growth, although the sphagnum and other ground-cover looked less disturbed than I’ve been seeing.
Here’s another of those ancient places that were once centers-of-the-world and now are virtually ignored ruins. This is the recently stabilized ruins of Kindrochit Castle, used annually for many years by King Robert II (1357–1390, coronated in 1371), grandson of Robert the Bruce, and the first Stewart king.
One of the last highland scenes today, before we drove over the last summit (modern cairn there with at least a dozen bunches of soggy, desiccated flowers, left in memory of at least a dozen dearly departeds).
Here’s the view from the cairn, with a few fields of brilliant yellow canola we haven’t seen for a long time, and the canopy of a hang-glider? parasailor? In the way, way distance is the sea, which is a half-mile from us over some dunes, as I wrap this and prepare for bed.
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
This is a new term I’ve learned, and it means, rainy, cold, windy, and generally unpleasant outdoor conditions…. And that was what we had today.
I have neglected to mention that we had several lovely days with ShedMan and CheetahWoman…lots of laughing and good times. Today, however, that came to an end….
CheetahWoman had told us about a magical cemetery island she found in the River Snizort, and we were going right by, and so stopped in. Despite the rain and many cow-pies, we discovered a sliver of the magic she had observed in the fading light of day (no rain).
Given that it was in the high 40s (F) in the valleys, it’s not surprising that at elevated elevations, the precip was white. I think there’s new dusting atop remnant snowpack from last winter….
I really loved the narrow long chutes of water the mountains were shedding…. More a result of the rubbish weather….
In light rain (still rubbishy), we checked out the Caladonian Canal (along the Great Glen Fault), which we paralleled for part of the day….
We finished up our touristing with a quick visit to Old Inverlochy Castle, which is in pretty good shape for dating back to about 1280. This view is through both gates, all the way across the interior courtyard. It had round towers in each corner, and the wall bases and part of the walls remain outlining the exterior walls and towers. The huge rounded stones are different than in stonework we’ve seen so far.
Finishing a day of rubbish weather is uplifting….
Monday, 25 May 2015
If you lived here, you’d be home now.
Needs work.
Ready to occupy.
We also took a ferry. Not too much open water….
I was expecting the horn to blow at any moment. I’m in the corner because it was rather cool and windy.
The crew loaded those large trucks first. They had to back on, and did it like they’d done it dozens of times before. The crew cinched the trucks down with big chains. No chance they’d shift during passage! For most of the trip, we were serenaded by several car-alarm horns; clearly they had not been calibrated for sea-worthiness….
Friday, 17 April 2015
It’s been rainy and cool, like spring, all day. The rains have been around so long that the ground is soggy.
Spring.
On the other hand, I used Thai basil from our new plant in last night’s dinner—it was already blooming! And here are healthy tomato buds, waiting for the precip to stop so they can open up and welcome pollinators.
Summer.
Aha. I have it. “Transitional.”
Thursday, 16 April 2015
Damage isn’t quite the right word. A storm changes things. Above this display, the tree is mostly leaves with only a few petals remaining airborne. And look at the petal-carpet! This is a very large and mature tree, and it was loaded with blooms…. Poor, frustrated tree…it’s an ornamental, so all that energy invested, and it’ll produce no fruit or offspring (via seed).
I’m pretty sure that rain/wind also brought down this wasp nest (it may not have been built/used by wasps, but that’s what I call these multi-celled nurseries). So delicate….
Yes, you are right to assume I got out for a walk—finally. Still have phlegm/cough, but better better! Good mental/emotional boost….
Monday, 6 April 2015
We drove through clouds for a while this afternoon. Some miles were pure pea-soup, and we could see almost nothing beyond a grey-white that hemmed us in. Other miles were a fog-blurred reality, with looming ghostly trees that, opposite expectations, honed my sense of what I was seeing, or at least that was my perception.