Boswell Book Festival

17 May 2013 23:55

Have you read James Boswell’s biography of Samuel Johnson? Or even the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. The 16th, May was the 250th anniversary of their first meeting. So this weekend they are having a bit of a ‘do’ at Boswell’s home, Auchinleck House, in Ayrshire. It’s the Boswell Book Festival.

How I wish I could go but I can’t split myself in two, so I can’t be there. Apart from the house and grounds I would also love to be able to listen to the many interesting guest speakers, particularly Artemis Cooper, who has written about Patrick Leigh Fermor amongst others. Maybe next year we can get to Auchinleck and go camping or even glamping.

You can see images of Auchinleck House here.

You can read about the Boswell Book Festival here and listen to some BBC programmes on the subject.

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Categories: Architecture, Books

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Book Sale at St Andrew’s and St George’s Edinburgh

14 May 2013 23:56

We got up early on Saturday morning so that we wouldn’t be too late in getting to the book sale in St Andrew’s and St George’s Church in Edinburgh, the proceeds all go to Christian Aid. It was Linda from Edinburgh who reminded me of the sale, so a big thank you to Linda!

St Andrew's & St George's Church
By the time we got to the church it was really chucking it down with rain and the books outside the church all had plastic covers over them and everbody had packed into the church – it was heaving with folks and it made it very difficult to see the books, but I persevered, and we went our separate ways. I ran out of money, had to find Jack, found him in the crowd, waved madly, he didn’t see me, he went in the opposite direction, the woman at the stall seemed to think I was going to nick her books, but in the end it was all sorted out and the upshot was I spent a lot of money and Jack didn’t spend nearly as much, that’s usually the way of it. As you can see from the photo above, by the time we got upstairs the rain had stopped and the crowd had thinned.

I couldn’t resist taking this photo of the newly redecorated church, it has had a lot spent on it recently and the organ has been refurbished.
St Andrew's & St George's Edinburgh

It was the ceiling which really attracted me though, beautiful, but I’m glad I didn’t have to paint it. Internally the church is really lovely with pale wood, maybe golden oak and the pews all have blue velvet buttoned cushions, I’m sure in my young day that would have been seen as being un-Presbyterian and just too comfy for church-goers. How times
change!
St Andrew's & St George'sChurch Edinburgh

Anyway, to the books, here they are.

books

The three in the middle are:
The House That Is Our Own by O. Douglas
The Provincial Lady in Wartime by E.M. Delafield
Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford. I’ve read it, but it was over 30 years ago I’m sure and was a library book.I want to read it again.

The other one which can’t be seen very well is:
We Are Still Married by Garrison Keillor. I’ve never read anything by him but I enjoy listening to him on Radio 4 extra on Sunday afternoons whilst cooking the dinner.

Two of the vintage crime Penguins I haven’t even heard of.

The Content Assignment by Holly Roth
Comes the Blind Fury by Douglas Rutherford

The third Penguin is Captain Cut-Throat by John Dickson Carr.

The Things We See is a Penguin book which just screams 1950s at you and is about design. It has some lovely photos and even the endpapers are 1950s design.

Civil To Strangers by Barbara Pym. I’ve read quite a lot of her books but most of them so long ago, I can’t remember if I’ve read this one or not. If so, it’s due a re-read.

Anna Buchan and O.Douglas by Wendy Forrester is a book which I’ve been looking for.

The Prince and the Pilgrim by Mary Stewart is one I’ve been meaning to buy for ages, it’s the last in her Merlin/Arthur series and I’m going to read it for the up and coming Mary Stewart readalong at Gudrun’s Tights.

Oasis of the North by Dawn MacLeod is about Inverewe Gardens in the north west of Scotland.

Scottish Highland Watercolours by Sutton Palmer is a collection of 16 watercolours of the Highlands, all very scenic.

I could have bought a lot more books and this week I’ve been restraining myself from getting on a bus and going back for another look because I really didn’t get a chance to look at the many gardening and craft books which were on sale. But I think I’ll be good and resist the temptaion, particularly as there is another library book sale locally on Saturday. The George Street, Edinburgh book sale continues until the end of the week.

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Categories: Architecture, Books

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Ta-Dah! A new old gatepost.

6 May 2013 00:39

Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s nobody around today who can do what the Victorians did, because they can, as you can see from the new red sandstone gatepost which has appeared at Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy. The stonemason deserves praise, he or she has made a great job of it, or maybe it was a joint effort.

park gates complete

It’s a perfect copy of the original which was smashed to bits by a lorry last year. The only thing is it’s going to be a while before it weathers down to look like the originals. One of our normal winters will help the stone along the way and it’ll probably turn greenish fairly soon. But as you can see the beautiful details are so crisp when compared with the Victorian ones which are quite badly worn. Oh well, you can’t have everything I suppose.

Beveridge park gates complete 2

But it would be great if we could eventually have replacement gates too, I can’t see it ever happening though. But if you know the park and you aren’t old enough to have been around the area before World War 2, (no, I’m not that old!) the postcard below will give you an idea of what they looked like.

Beveridge Park Gates, Kirkcaldy

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Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy, Fife

30 April 2013 22:53

It’s well over a year since one of the big red sandstone gateposts at Beveridge Park was demolished by a trailer belonging to a Bulgarian circus which some silly person in the council gave permission to set up in the park. It looked like it was never going to be repaired or replaced and I previously did a blog post on it, hoping to shame someone into action. You can see that post here.

Here’s the photo I took last year.

Beveridge Park Gates 2012

Anyway, I’m taking absolutely no credit for it but just a week after I posted about it, I saw a stonemason’s van parked at the gates. It looked like someone was being given the job of at least doing a survey on the work required.

And over the last couple of weeks the work has been completed. Hallelujah! The photo below is of the gatepost under construction.

Beveridge Park gates

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Categories: Architecture, Personal

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Wordsworth House, Cockermouth

22 April 2013 00:18

We actually stayed at Cockermouth when we were in the Lake District, mainly because that is where William Wordsworth was born and grew up, and in the hope that it wouldn’t be as busy and touristy there as the actual lakes. As you can see, there is a mini roundabout almost at the gates of the house. The Wordsworth House was certainly handy for the shops as the house is right in the main street.

Wordsworth's house

It was still busy at the house though, we went there as soon as it opened and there was quite a large crowd of people waiting to get in. I don’t know what happened to them all because when we looked around the house it wasn’t too busy at all.

Wordsworth garden

The above photo is of the back of the house. Frankly I could have done without the arty crafty stuff. I suppose it was there to interest children but to me it spoiled the atmosphere of the garden and the textile art is very much of the sort that everybody who is in the least bit handy with a crochet hook, knitting needles or into felt craft would say to themselves – I can do that!

The photo below was taken from the house and when you climb the steps at the end of the garden there is a small terrace and a low wall, on the other side of the wall is the River Derwent.

Wordsworth House Garden 1 from house

It must have been a brilliant place to spend your childhood. I imagine William hopped over the wall frequently to have some fun in the river. Even although there had been a lot of rain and presumably snow melt from the hills, the river wasn’t deep and in the summer it must be very low and safe to play in.

Sadly Wordsworth’s mother died when he was only 8 years old and after that he lived mainly in nearby Penrith with relatives.

The photo below was taken from the end of the garden, looking to the left you can see the old bridge which is still in use. I wonder if children play in it nowadays.

Bridge in Cockermouth, from Wordsworth House.

The original kitchen range is also still in use, with a real fire in the grate. We were given Grasmere gingerbread which had been baked there to try, it was very nice. I still haven’t got around to making my own yet, maybe I’ll manage it during this week. And there’ll be more photos of the interior of Wordsworth’s House later in the week too.

Wordsworth's House kitchen

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Categories: Architecture, Bridges, Gardening, Towns

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Allan Bank, Grasmere, English Lake District

15 April 2013 00:18

We didn’t visit Dove Cottage at Grasmere because we were pushed for time and it isn’t National Trust. Allan Bank was our destination, unfortunately we thought it was actually in the village and it isn’t. So by the time we bought our Grasmere gingerbread (which is different but very good) and had a look around the shops, the craft/antique shop next to the Co-op actually has a lot of books in it, and I managed to buy an old Scottish railways book for a certain member of the family – we had even less time.

Allan Bank stands above Grasmere, it looks a lot further away than it is, but we dashed up the hill anyway, with our eye on the time because our parking ticket was only for 90 minutes. It turns out that Allan Bank is not your usual National Trust property. You can read all about it here.

Allan Bank 1

William Wordsworth and his wife and children lived in the house for a couple of years, along with Coleridge, but at the moment it’s being used as a place for footsore NT members to have some rest and relaxation. I’m sure the woman who welcomed us said that the coffee was free but you had to pay for cakes. Anyway we had no time for coffee. We had a good look around the house though, there’s not much in the house apart from a lot of chairs and some tables, there were actually a few vacant ones.

Allan Bank fire damage

Apparently there was a fire in the house in 2011 and you can see some of the damage in this photo. Allan Bank is now a shell, stripped back to the plaster but I suppose it will eventually be restored when finances are on a healthier footing. If you look closely at the photo below you can see a boudoir grand piano which has just been purchased for the house. If you ask the staff they will allow you to play it.

Allan Bank stairs

The photo below is of the large skylight directly above the staircase. You can’t see it in the photo but the glass has tiny stars etched all over it.

Allan Bank skylight

I wasn’t able to take too many photos of the interior because there were so many people in it R&R-ing, but this gives you an idea of the house and setting.

Allan Bank window

This is a close up of the same window, obviously the glass wasn’t damaged in the fire. Don’t you just love that old wavy glass. I still find it quite amazing that glass is actually a liquid which moves even more slowly than glaciers and forms interesting patterns over the years.

Allan Bank window close up

And lastly I couldn’t resist photographing this derelict cottage which stands at the right hand side of the house. I presume it was inhabited by the head gardener but as you can see it is not so much distressed as having a complete nervous breakdown. It looks like there are plans afoot to save its life though as someone has painted four different blocks of colour on the front wall, as if they are trying to decide which colour to go for. I vote for the two outer cream colours, definitely not pink.

Allan Bank ruined cottage

And that was Allan Bank we only had about 15 minutes in it and then we had to leg it down the hill. Luckily we got to our car just as its parking time was about to run out which was just as well as there was a parking attendant just about to pounce!

The Wordsworth family graves are in the village. I’m sure he would have been offered the chance to be buried in Westminster Abbey in Poets’ Corner but obviously that didn’t appeal to him.

Wordsworth graves

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Categories: Architecture, Books, Scenery, Towns

Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland

9 April 2013 00:35

When I woke up on Sunday morning and realised that it was a dead dreich day (in other words – miserably grey, damp day) – I was really glad that we had grabbed a hold of the sunshine of the previous day and gone for a drive up north of Perth to Dunkeld. It’s one of my favourite destinations. This is a photo of the High Street, taken from the middle of the bridge over the River Tay.

Dunkeld from bridge

There’s not a lot there shop-wise, which suits me fine as I’m happier looking at scenery than ‘stuff’, but we had a wander around the wee town anyway, I decided that I didn’t need a lovely old framed print, so I didn’t buy it and so didn’t help out the country’s economy, but on the other hand – I helped our economy!

The photo below is of the River Tay, taken from the middle of the bridge again, looking south. As you can see, the trees aren’t even showing a haze of green at the moment, and who could blame them for keeping their tender parts tucked away from the cold wind.

River Tay at Dunkeld

And the photo below is looking along the river towards the north.

aR Tay North

We walked along the riverbank for a wee while and this was the best photo I could get of the bridge through the trees.

abridge through trees

So that was Dunkeld, we climbed a hill to have a look at the war memorial of course, and I thought to myself – maybe Dunkeld would be a nice place to move to. But on the way back to Fife I noticed a roadsign which said Edinburgh 56 miles – and that seems an awful long way from civilisation to me, so it put me right off the idea. The search continues!

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Categories: Architecture, Bridges, Scotland, Towns

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Seafield, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland.

7 April 2013 00:39

As the clocks sprang forward by one hour last week – the nights are fair drawin’ oot, as we say here. I love this time of the year because it’s almost like getting another life as there’s light to do things after dinner time, like take a walk along the coast to Seafield, which is what we did a couple of nights ago, as you can see, the tide was quite far out. Sometimes there are seals on the rocks here, but not this time. Until about 20 years ago there was a coalmine underneath the sea here. It must have been very scary to mine in those conditions.

arocks and sea 1

There are some nice red rock formations along that part of the coast. It looks like sandstone to me but I’m not sure that it is as that is a very soft stone but this seems to be able to stand up well to being battered by the North Sea.

arocks 1

It’s difficult to get photos without junk in them. The whole place is littered with stuff which has been lost overboard from ships. Buckets, old ropes, smashed up creels and bits of tarpaulin seem to come in with every tide. Every now and again there is a community clean up weekend, but it’s a never ending task.

arocks and sea 2

This was our destination, Seafield Tower, or what is left of it. It was abandoned in 1733. I don’t suppose you can be sentimental and save all old buildings, there are so many of them around Scotland. This one has clung on to the coastline for hundreds of years and until recently it was really quite safe to have a walk around in it but the heavy seas of this last winter have taken their toll on the tower.

aTower 2

As you can see from this photo, there has been a fairly massive rockfall from the tower and I suppose it’ll eventually all disappear into the North Sea.

aTower 1

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Categories: Architecture, Coast, Scenery, Scotland

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The Harbourmaster’s House, Dysart, Fife, Scotland

31 March 2013 02:03

aHouse 2

I’ve posted quite a few photos of Dysart before, but never one of the front of the harbourmaster’s house. I’ve been meaning to get along the coast to Dysart since I read Anna Buchan’s (O.Douglas) autobiography – Unforgettable, Unforgotten. Actually it isn’t so much an autobiography as a history of the Buchan family and their childhood. I had been wondering which Fife harbourmaster’s house she had used as a model for the house in her book The Proper Place. The description sounded like Dysart to me and sure enough she mentioned that it was indeed the house at Dysart she had been writing about. It has the delicious address of Hot Pot Wynd and sits right at the bottom of a steep hill, just as she described it. It was built in the 18th century. It looks like two houses to me though, I’m not sure if the left hand side is still a private home or is part of the coastal centre and bistro.

aHouse 3

Despite the fact that the smell of coffee emanating from it this afternoon was very enticing we didn’t succumb to it because there were hordes of people going in, I had a difficult time getting photos sans folks. I remarked to Jack that it must resemble the Tardis inside because nobody came out. We decided to leave coffee for an afternoon during the week when I imagine it’ll be less heaving with humanity.

This is a back view of the house, I think that from the top of it you should get a reasonable view over to Edinburgh. Hopefully I’ll find out for sure soon.

aHouse 4

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Categories: Architecture, Books, Scotland, Scottish literature, Towns

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Kellie Castle in Fife, Scotland

12 March 2013 17:50

I was having a look at photos on my computer and realised that I hadn’t done a blogpost about Kellie Castle. It dates from the 14th century and is supposed to be haunted – is there a castle which isn’t haunted? Anyway, we went there one afternoon in July, it was a lovely day as you can see I hope, but sadly it was one of the very few good days we had last summer. If you want to read about the castle’s history, and see some photos of the interior, have a look here.

Kellie Castle

The gardens at Kellie Castle were looking particularly good, I think we caught the flowers just at their best for once. There are various nooks and crannies that you can go and have a sit down in and enjoy the views and plenty of countryside to wander in.

SDC12950

The clematis was rampant, unlike my own which all got that ghastly blight – again.

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I know that we’re all supposed to love red roses but yellow ones have always been my favourites, these ones were lovely in combination with the clematis, but I don’t know what kind they were.

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Who lives in a house like this? Well I wouldn’t mind at all, especially if the garden goes with it. I think this cute wee place must have originally been lived in by a gardener, maybe the castle’s head gardener. It’s like something out of a fairy tale.

SDC12951

I don’t know about you – but that look back into last summer cheered me up a wee bit, which was just what I was needing, because just as everything was beginning to grow in my garden – back came the snow and ice. It’s a hard life being a plant in a British garden, nipped in the bud just when you thought that winter had gone. If we don’t get a half decent summer this year I might have to go and find some good weather for a while, but where?

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Categories: Architecture, Scotland, Scottish History

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