Dumbarton from the Air

28 June 2012 22:44

Have you been on to the new site Britain from Above? I just had to go on to see what the town I grew up in looked like in the aerial photos. The houses in the top left hand of the photo below were new builds in 1939 when the photo was taken and I was brought up in one of them, albeit in the 1960s, by that time more houses had been built along to the right hand of those ones and the road behind them was bigger, in fact it’s now a dual carriageway to Glasgow.

Dumbarton east from the air.

I had to cross that road to get to the hills which are beyond the photo, and in the summertime that was where I could be found, it was the days when we were all running wild and climbing trees as kids, in the fashion of children in Enid Blyton books, we had such freedom compared with the poor kids of today.

If you want to see more photos of the Dumbarton, Loch Lomond area and even photos of the Queen Mary on the River Clyde have a look here. The very first photo is of the castle rock which is at the left hand side of my header and the town is just beyond it. Loch Lomond is an easy walk on a good day, but the best walk is the one up the hills towards Overtoun House, sadly there don’t seem to be any photos of the house though. I could spend hours looking at this site.

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Categories: Bridges, Dumbarton, Nostalgia, Scenery, Scottish History, Towns

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Bullets and Billets by Bruce Bairnsfather

28 June 2012 12:53

bullets and billets

I’ve been collecting the Fragments From France magazines for years and I think I have just about all of them now, they contain the cartoons which Bruce Bairnsfather drew during World War I. I happened to be in the Oxfam bookshop in Perth on Saturday (it was the busiest shop in town) and I spotted an old copy of Bairnsfather’s book Bullets and Billets. As you can imagine, I snapped it up fast and it went straight to the top of my reading pile. It was first published in December 1916 and I have no idea how many were in the original print run, but my copy is a reprint which was also published in December 1916. I think it must have been a very popular book.

Bruce Bairnsfather was born in India, into a military family but he didn’t get into military college and had a career in advertising before World War I. Like most men at that time it was inevitable that he became involved in the war.

As Bairnsfather was a machine gun officer at the Front and he was writing the book in quiet moments, it’s all completely authentic and full of that black humour which was so vital in keeping men going through the horrors that they were experiencing. I’m about a third of the way through it, it’s actually a very quick read and I’d say that if you are at all interested in the Great War era then you’ll find it really interesting – and amusing of course. Luckily I’ve just checked Project Gutenberg and it is available for download, have a look here. If you prefer a real book then it has been reprinted lots of times over the years and is easy to get a hold of.

If you want to see some of Bruce Bairnsfather’s cartoons, look here.

If you want to know more about Bruce Bairnsfather have a look here.

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Civil To Strangers by Barbara Pym

26 June 2012 23:26

I borrowed this book from Dunfermline library which is the first ever Andrew Carnegie library. I was just having a mooch around to see what they had different because it isn’t my local library, and ended up looking at the large print books. This Barbara Pym book jumped out at me, I didn’t even realise it had been published. I think I read most of her books way back in the 1970s.

It’s a collection of unpublished Pym works, some of them unfinished but a lot of the characters are quite recognisable as she was into recycling and waste not want not, like all people of her generation, and she did the same with her characters.

In my experience, some scenes from Barbara Pym’s books linger in my memory forever so I was amused to see that she has a vicar giving a sermon, the idea for which he had got from an elderly parshioner. She had mentioned to him that some people didn’t put enough stitches into their embroidery. It was similar to a vicar in another of her books, I can’t remember which one, but he got an idea for a sermon from one of the church cleaning ladies who mentioned that she got more satisfaction from polishing the wood than the brass.

Anyway, this collection contains an early novel, three novellas and an autobiographical essay, “Finding a Voice”, which is Pym’s only written comment on her writing career. There is also an unfinished Home Front Novel which she began to write in 1939 but war work seems to have got in the way of her finishing it, which is such a shame because I was enjoying it.

Apart from anything else Barbara Pym was a great observer of people and she must have met quite a few ghastly ones in her time, particularly in the drawing-rooms of North Oxford, but I’m sure we’ve all met the same types, wherever we are in the world. Her men are just – something else, but worryingly she gets certain characters absolutely spot on. I’ve come across a lot of self obsessed and idiotic, lecturing males in recent months, and honestly, if I couldn’t laugh at them, I’d be screaming!

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Falkland Estate, Fife

25 June 2012 23:31

On a Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago we drove out to the village of Falkland in Fife, Scotland. It was a nice day, and now that I think about it, it was actually the Saturday of the Jubilee weekend, so Falkland was busier than usual. It’s a shame they didn’t have such good weather down south that Saturday, they were all drenched and drookit.

Falkland Lodge House

The lodge house above is one of my favourites although the water does run right underneath it, I’m not too sure I would like that. This pond used to be full of ducks and moorhens. What happened to them all?

I was standing on this bridge when I took the photo of the house, I wish I had such a lovely view from my living room window.

Bridge at Falkland Estate

Anyway, we weren’t feeling energetic enough to go on a hill walk up the East or West Lomond so we just ambled around the land which surrounds the Falkland Estate. They have all sorts of things going on there.

If you walk over the bridge and go through the gate it isn’t long before you reach this memorial to some of the deceased inhabitants of the estate. There are quite a few graves inside a sort of mock medieval roofless church, one of them belongs to a son of the family, who had been killed during World War I. There are some gorgeous trees around the area and the slopes of the East Lomond are towering above the land. The tree with the pink flowers is a horse- chestnut.

Memorial at Falkland Estate

If you look carefully through the trees in the photograph below, you should just be able to see some of Falkland Palace in the distance.

Falkland Palace through trees 2

And this is a close up of a wee bit of the palace. In a few day’s time I plan to go into the palace, I haven’t been in there for years and I think you might find it interesting. It was the Hunting Palace of the Stuart Kings and Queens as this area was full of deer, in fact there still is quite a lot of wildlife around, including deer, they didn’t manage to kill them all. The palace was a favourite with young Mary Queen of Scots. If you want to know more about the palace, have a look here.
Falkland Palace, Fife, Scotland

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Categories: Architecture, Bridges, Scenery, Scottish History

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The Pit Prop Syndicate by Freeman Wills Crofts

25 June 2012 00:30

This is the only book by Freeman Wills Crofts which is on Project Gutenberg. Of course it’s one of his first crime novels, dating from 1922, his books were published from 1920 until his death in 1957. I think he did improve over the years.

Seymour Merriman is in the wine trade and part of his job entails travelling around France and visiting vineyards. On one of his travels his motorbike runs out of petrol in a rural district, stranding him in what he thinks is the middle of nowhere, but he discovers a tree felling business nearby and walks there, in the hope that they will be able to sell him some petrol.

On the road down to the offices Merriman meets a young woman and she arranges for him to get some petrol but Merriman’s suspicions are raised by the strange movements of one of the lorries which was being used at the tree felling business. He’s determined to find out what’s really going on.

Around about half way through this book I started to get the feeling that it was beginning to drag but almost as soon as I thought that the whole thing was enlivened by the appearance of Inspector Willis of Scotland Yard.

My one gripe is the romantic element, I’m really happier to have my vintage crime sans romance, but a lot of people must see it as a plus, publishers included. Just think of all the episodes of Morse which involve Morse and love interest, I could just do without it. Maybe it’s my age! No – scrub that – it’s just that I’m not much into romantic fiction, unless it comes with a big dose of humour.

As I said though, The Pit Prop Syndicate was Wills Crofts’s first foray into fiction and it’ll be interesting to see how his writing improves over the years, and of course, as I downloaded this onto my Kindle for free, everything’s hunky dory, especially as I don’t have to find shelf space for another book.

If you’re interested you can download it here.

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Scottish words: clype

23 June 2012 00:00

Clype is a word which is often used by schoolchildren in quite a menacing way. At other times it’s used teasingly.

If you are accused of being a clype (it rhymes with type) it simply means that you’re being called a tell-tale, a grass, a sneak, that most despised of things – an informer.

At primary school every class seemed to have one of them, always a goody goody girl for some reason, who would shout: You’re aa-ported. Why did they always say aa-ported, when what they meant was – I’m going to report you to the teacher, for whatever small misdemeanour you had committed.

I well remember being aa-ported to the teacher for having my eyes open during the Lord’s Prayer!! Thankfully, Mrs Wilson told Jackie that she must have had her eyes open too.

Jackie of course was a clype, and we all told her so. No other words are required, just that one wee word which you can put plenty of feeling into as you say it.

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Branklyn Garden, Perth.

22 June 2012 00:00

Last weekend was so dreich and dismal, with the raining pouring down the whole weekend, we could stand it no longer. So on Sunday afternoon we decided to try to travel to wherever there was a patch of dry sky. We were reliably informed that it wasn’t actually raining in Perth, although it was grey and overcast. So, we girded our loins and set off for Perth, planning to use our newly delivered National Trust cards and visit Branklyn Garden. It’s a garden of two acres and it’s a stone’s throw from Perth town centre, just cross over the bridge and turn to the right. It costs £6 to get in, which is quite a lot as it isn’t a big garden but there are plenty of nice benches to sit on and contemplate. My top tip is – join the National Trust if you like visiting places like this as you’ll end up saving money in the long run.

The golden acer below is called Acer Shirasawanum – and I want one! All of my acers are the red/purple variety.

Acer in Branklyn Gardens, Perth,

This is the Arts and Crafts house which belonged to the Rentons who were the original owners of the gardens and donated them to the National Trust. You can’t look around the house as it’s lived in by the garden’s manager.

House in Branklyn Gardens, Perth

This is one of the many paths around Branklyn Gardens. They have the national collection of Himlayan popies here but we were just about a week too late to see them at their best, the same goes for the rhododendrons. We must remember to go a wee bit earlier next year.

Pathway in Branklyn Gardens,Perth

More paths and lovely planting.

Pathway in Branklyn Gardens,Perth

A pretty pond area, the water is amazingly clear.

Pond

These orchids on the right are quite weird looking.

Orchids

The rock garden is very well done but at the moment it isn’t too colourful.

rock garden in Branklyn Gardens,Perth

Gorgeous bark!

Tree + Bark

Gorgeous tree.

Tree + Bark

Yes, it’s a bit of a tree bark fest!

Tree Bark, Branklyn Gardens,Perth

Turk’s Cap lilies, amongst many other plants.

Turk's Cap lilies in Branklyn Gardens,Perth

The only complaint I have is that a lot of the plant names have either disappeared or worn away, hopefully they’ll eventually be replaced. Have a look at this You Tube video, which will give you more of an idea of the layout of the garden.

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Categories: Gardening

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The Complaints by Ian Rankin

20 June 2012 23:46

It seems like absolutely no time since I was in the kitchen listening to an interview with Ian Rankin on the radio. So it was a wee bit of a shock to me to realise that it must have been a 2009 interview, as the book he was plugging at the time was The Complaints, the first in a new series. The next thing I heard was that he was bringing back Rebus in his most recently published book and that it’s also his third Malcolm Fox book. I thought I’d better start reading the Malcolm Fox series before it gets out of hand and he has written 20 of them.

I managed to borrow the Complaints from the library. It’s set mainly in Edinburgh, as you would expect and Malcolm Fox is the main character. He’s a detective working in the Complaints section of the Lothian Police, they investigate other policemen and are deeply despised by all of their so-called colleagues. Fox is described as a bear of a man, although he has lost weight recently and he is also a recovering alcoholic. He’s not exactly popular, even amongst the other Complaints and Conduct detectives.

I really didn’t feel that I was enjoying this book until I was almost half way into it, I think that was mainly because I was missing Rebus and I kept imagining Fox as the Rebus character but eventually I got over that and I ended up enjoying The Complaints more than the Rebus books, mind you, I think I’ve only read about four of those.

The action takes place over just 17 days in 2009. Malcolm Fox has been told to investigate Jamie Breck, a young detective who has been ear-marked for fast-tracking to the top. There’s plenty going on in and around Edinburgh, murders and disappearances, dodgy business dealings and corrupt council officials and nobody knows who they can trust. It’s difficult to figure out who are the good guys and there are plenty of twists and turns in this book, I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the Fox series.

It’s easy to see that the nefarious goings-on of Edinburgh Council give Ian Rankin loads of copy!

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Scotland’s Light

18 June 2012 22:14

I don’t really keep up with Hollywood, in fact I wouldn’t even recognise the so-called household names who are involved in the film industry nowadays. I still think of Meryl Streep as a bit of a newcomer. So it was only when I watched the Scottish evening news earlier that I learned about this new Disney animation movie called Brave, set in Scotland apparently.

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister is jumping on the bandwagon and is over in Hollywood whilest the film is being promoted and is going to be attending Brave’s premier. I suppose if you think that there’s no such thing as bad publicity then you might as well go with it. Apparently they think the film will be great for Scottish tourism. It might turn out to be quite an entertaining watch but if we’re relying on Disney to get tourists to Scotland I can’t help thinking we’re in a really bad way.

Come to Scotland for the scenery, history, geology, archaeology, food (yes) the whisky (if you’re that way inclined), hill-walking, climbing, white water rafting, the Edinburgh Festival (if you must), great museums and art galleries, lochs and castles galore, stately homes and palaces and purer air. Maybe even come for the people, well some of them!

If you want someone else’s opinion on Scotland have a read at Deborah Orr’s article which appeared in Friday’s Guardian. You can read it here where there are links to lovely scenery.

The thing that I love most about summer in Scotland is the light. At the moment it’s 10 o’clock at night and it’s not far off broad daylight outside. I was gardening until just half an hour ago and I still could easily as there are no problems with seeing what I’m doing. It’s a big contrast to living in the south of England where you don’t get the benefit of the light nights. Honestly, you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the gloaming in some rural setting, you could almost believe in fairies!

Have a look at the lovely Scotland in the Gloaming site. I have to thank Peggy Ann for pointing me in its direction – via the US.

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Categories: Local interest, Museums, Scenery, Scottish History

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Morning Tide by Neil M. Gunn

18 June 2012 00:20

Neil Gunn was born in the far north of mainland Scotland, in Caithness. Morning Tide was published in 1930, and he stuck firmly to what he had experienced himself. It’s the story of a small fishing and crofting community near Caithness, at the end of the 19th century, where life is harsh and the women don’t know if their husbands and sons will come back after their day’s work is done. All too often the sea claims them before they can get back to shore with their catch.

The story begins on the beach where the thirteen year old Hugh Mac Beth is searching for mussels for his father to use as bait on his fishing line. It feels like a sort of rite of passage as Hugh has reached the age when he can be a help to his father instead of just being another mouth to feed.

Neil Gunn writes a good storm and if you’re languishing in horrendous heat wherever you are at the moment, I’m fairly sure that reading this book would cool you down by the way Gunn describes the cold of the sea and the shore.

This is an autobiographical story and it’s really as much about the women of the community as the men. Young and old are having a hard and sometimes cruel life and the community is dying as the young men go off to seek their fortune elsewhere. Waving off their sons to places like Australia was something that the parents just had to do, knowing that they would never see them again, but at least they would be alive and hopefully living a better life.

Hugh grows up in lots of ways, like being allowed to take part in a poaching party but he can’t neglect his schoolwork and he has to learn poetry by heart, failure to do so will result in the schoolmaster doling out the usual punishment – getting the strap/belt/tawse – up to six strokes of it on the hand.

If you’re interested in what Scottish life was like back then then I think that Morning Tide will give you a clear idea. It wasn’t all doom, there were occasional joys for the folks too.

This book is written in plain English and Neil M. Gunn is thought to have been one of the most influential Scottish writers of the first half of the 20th century.

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