Local Pictures From Around Glasgow

The local picture page is going to be a little different than the other pages. Rather than having just one trip, I will continue adding more onto this page, and I will update the date on the index page (the one you just clicked on) so you will know when an update has ocurred.

Updates:

2003.May.09 - Glasgow Green Walk / Backyard / Jack
2003.Apr.26 - March Flowers / Snow Pics / Pollok Park / Jack & Solo
2002.Nov.24 - Glasgow Web Cam Links
2002.Oct.13 - Glasgow - Gig On The Green
2002.Oct.10 - Loudoun Castle
2002.Oct.07 - Glasgow - Shawlands
2002.Oct.05 - Loch Lommond
2002.Oct.03 - New Lanark
2002.Oct.03 - Glasgow - Simshill

Glasgow Green - In our April letter, I mentioned our two day marrathon trying to get to Bothwell Castle. These are some of the sights along the way.

This building was an old industrial building, where, I think it was an old textile factory. The patters on the walls are not painted, but tiles and brickwork. You don't see this kind of detail in the modern buildings.

Ah, spring. The time for the cherry trees to start blooming, puppies chasing kittens, and of course fields of daffodills.

Glasgow Green - Rowers - In the travel book, they show you everything that is nice and pretty about Glasgow. I guess it would be a real downer if they showed you the parts that the tour busses miss out, but one picture they had, was of rowers on the Clyde. Now, Kim and I have been to Glasgow Green, maybe 50 to 100 times, and I pass over the Clyde every day. In the travel book, it had a couple of rowers. We have never seen this before, and laughed at the travel book. Well, you can imagine our surprise when we saw the following!

Now, I'm thinking that the person in the front has the best job. Not only does he not have to row, but he's the only one watching forward, and has a clear view of the river.

There were actually two teams, and they were just puttering up the river.

Here they are, positioning their boats at the starting line...

And they're off!

Looks like the ones closest to us have a little lead. Watch out swans!

There's one of the boats - where's the second?

There it comes! As you can tell, the closest boat was able to power it's way down the river, and quickly puts on the breaks.

The bridge just infront of the boats is actually a dam. The Clyde is tidal, so from below the bridge, the tide will come in, and where we are would be fresh water (well, not really fresh, but you know what I mean).

We weren't the only specitators - across the river was about a dozen swans, just admiring their rowing ability.

Here is a view into Gorbals from the starting bridge. Not the best of places to be at night.

Hungry Squirrel - In quite a few of my letters, I have mentioned the crazy, loud, playful foxes that roam around Kings & Linn Parks, and, our yard. Well, unfortunately, these playful little foxes only seem to come out at night to play where it is to dark to take a picture, or they if they are out during the day, they quickly run through they yard. As a result, I have no good fox pictures. What I do have, is a greedy, piggy little squirrel, that thinks the bird feeder is for his total enjoyment. The bird feeder has two benefits - obviously to see the different birds of the area, but it also gives something for the cats to watch - a cheap moggie telly. The folowing is one of the local squirrels making a pig out of himself.

Right... Now he's gotten himself on this 7 foot pole. Now what? He can see the sunflower seeds.

Humm... He knows they're down there. He can smell them.

Nope. Still not able to reach them. Humm...

Ok. Now what about trying to dive down towards them...

Then just swing over...

Why is this metal grate here? It slows my breakfast!

There must be a better way of getting a free breakfast...

Success - one fully squirrel. Now, time for a much needed nap.

Glasgow - Mother's Day - March 30 2003 - Happy Mother's Day to everyone. These daffadills are from our very own back yard. As to those who thinks that it's not Mother's Day, well, you're wrong. In the UK, Mother's Day is at the end of March instead of in May. Father's Day is in June along with the rest of the world. Anyway, enjoy some daffy's early.

Glasgow - Glasgow Green - March 2003 - One of our walks found us at Glasgow Green. Glasgow Green is just East of the city centre, and follows the river. In the Green, they hold various events such as Gig on the Green (more on that below), First Night, Guy Fox Day and fireworks during the summer. There is also a little museum, a couple of football pitches, a large children's playground and other parkie type stuff there. The following four pictures are of Kim under one of the entrance way arches, and my back would be to the Green. One other point of interest - just behind Kim are Scotland's highest law courts, and these are the most secure in Europe. No, they aren't so secure just because of the Bhoys and Gers football yobs, but because here is where they were going to hold the Lockerbee bomber's trials. Lockerbee is only about a 30 minute drive from Glasgow.

Glasgow - Carna Drive - January 1 2003 - Somewhere below these pictures is a view from our window during summer. These were taken (you've probably guessed by now) on January 1, 2003 - the first snow of the year. The first picture is looking north towards the city centre, and you can just see Hampden Stadium inbetween the trees on the middle right.

This is looking East towards Kings Park. All of those trees are in the park, so we are fortunately nice and close. We went for a walk later in the day, and found rabbit, fox, squirrel, dog, cat and, the elusive human tracks scattered thru the park.

This is looking West towards Shawland and Pollokshaws, where we used to live, just north of the towers.

Glasgow - Pollak Park - March 2003 - Pollak Park - What can I say about the park? Humm... At first glance, it looks like a, well, umm, park. But, once you get in, you will notice these rather large cows. These are not cows, but, if you will ask a local, they are called Heeland' Cooos.

Last year, Britain had the foot and mouth disease, which pretty much swept across the country, and into parts of Europe. The entire park was closed off, and these are the reason. They actually had polis at the entrances and patrolled, so yobs like you and me couldn't even to get close enough to visit the coos. Fortunately, there were no cases of foot and mouth around Glasgow, but there were scattered farms across Scotland.

Hello? Anyone in there??? Hello?

The one nice thing about a digital camera is that you can take as many pictures of whatever you want, and it doesn't cost you a dime.

Now when you see the size of the coos, which are larger than normal, you run across this guy - he's definately been eating a lot of bugs. We stayed clear of him, just incase there wasn't enough bugs in the stump.

Part of the park is dedicated to, well, just grass and greenery. This is a beautiful patch where you can just go and relax. Unfortunately this is just in the start of spring, so the grass is a little soggy. These two people in the pic were a little mean. See that little dog? The lady would call him, he would go running over to her, then the guy would call him, and he would go running back to him. Then the lady would call. Back and forth. And this poor little mutt had really short legs, and he had a round little body. I felt sorry for the poor little pooch. It was painful just watching as his little toungue was dragging on the ground.

At the top of the grassy area is this little gazebo, where you can have lunch, or just enjoy the park below. We've had lunch there a couple of times. Very relaxing.

Here's Kim, after wading thru the grass and puddles.

And here is the museum. What is also strange about this picture, is not the park itself, but what's above it - blue sky - and in March! The lower part is dedicated to the restaurant. The part that is closest is just like a canteen style, whereas the part on the left is a more formal, posher type of restaurant.

The following pictures are some of the artifacts in the museum. If you ever get the chance to come to Glasgow, come to this museum. Plus, for all you Scottish people out there, it's also free!

Once we paid our dues, we were inside. This is a Chinese Bactrian Camel, made from earthenware with a polychrome lead glaze from the Tang Dynasty, around the 8th Century.

Doesn't this person look so peaceful? One of the beautiful things they did with this museum was put these amazing glass windows which face onto the wooded area of the park, which just seems to be a continuation of the museum itself. This allows for the different colors of the different seasons to actually become one of the exhibits and blends in with the art.

Here is a statue of a Chinese Figure of a Lohan Buddist disciple. It is stoneware with polychrome biscuit glaze from the Ming Dynasty from 1484.

This is a Chinese Storehouse from the Han Dynasty, around 206 BC.

This little creature is a Chinese Watchdog, made from earthenware with lead glaze from the Han Dynasty from 206 BC.

On his back, is a ring, so he can be carried for cereomonial purposes, such as for funerials. Any idea what type of dog this is?

This is fluted field armour from around 1520 from south Germany. I tried it on, but it chaffed.

This is some French Windows from the 15th century. I tried to get them moved to our house, but it wouldn't fit onto the back of the bike.

The only picture of a picture I took was of this one. It is titled: "Sailing Boats By Moonlight" by Henri Le Sidaner which was painted in 1928.

Once again, this is one of those things that you just have to see in person. The lighting is great when you are there, but when you take a picture, it becomes underexposed, and all yellowie (plus other stuff). If you get the chance, take a wonder thru this museum.

These are a group of 5 nuns from south Germany from the 15th century.

This is Lamentation Over The Crucified Christ, from 1510 from South Germany.

Now, the following are so famous that everyone has seen these in books, pictures of, or sitcoms doing silly impersentations of. But... I never thought I would actually see them here - in Glasgow of all places.

The first is Rodin's "Call To Arms"

The next two are Rodin's "Eve After The Fall" from 1887.

Now, this is the one that I would have never thought I would find in Glasgow. It is Rodin's "The Thinker".

There he is - just thinking away. With that thought, I will leave the museum. Good night all.

Glasgow - Jack and Solo - Whenever someone has a website, they always have picture of their pets. Well, I am sad to say, that here is our kitty collection.

Here are two pictures of Jack. And, no, we didn't have to do anything for his toungue to slip out of his head.

When we told Solo that we were going to take his picture, he ran upstairs, and put on his best tux. Here he wearing a beautiful black tux, fitted with tails and white gloves.

Glasgow - Web Cams - November 2002 - Right now, everyone is getting ready for Christmas. At St. George Square in Glasgow, at Christmas they put lights around the square and build an ice rink. This year is no different. If you ever want to look at Glasgow, and see what it's doing, paste the following into your browser (or type it in):

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/html/about/wcindex.htm

There are two cameras. Pick the Java format for both of them, and what I usually do is click on both of them and move them side by side. One camera is situated in the city council building, and another is just off to the top left of the square. Check out the site, and you will know what I mean.

Glasgow - Gig On The Green - August 2002 - Every year, they hold an event called "Gig On The Green", which is a 3 day rock concert. This was held at Glasgow Green, which is an open park on the east side of town. Last year they had bands like Slipknot, Eminem, and Nine Inch Nails and this year they had Datsun, Jane's Additiction, and a couple more headliners. They had one outdoor mainstage (shown below), one big covered stage, a smaller stage for local "talent", and a covered dance tent. Last year they had sold over 60,000 tickets, but for some reason, they only sold about 15,000 this year.

Here is Kim waiting during one of the intermissions. Behind her is "The People's Palace" which is a really interesting conservative, garden and greenhouse. Unfortunately one of the sponsors was O2, which is a mobile phone company. They were handing out tonnes of promo material, which is probably about 90% of the litter. One item they did hand out was a frisbee. These were actually quite fun, although not very accurate. During the opening acts, people would try and get them on stage, but they were too light, and few made it.

The main group that we wanted to see was Jane's Addidiction. Here, they are starting their performance.

Cue the guitars... add the keyboard...

And, in comes the lead singer, with mic in one hand, and a bottle of champain in the other. In this picture, he is appearing to kill the entire bottle in one gulp.

Ah, he's finished his drink. Now, if you look closely, that is actually a hat - or dead white floppy octopus or something. I am not really sure. It does go quite well with his grey speckled jacket and purple velvet jumpsuit. Now, if this guy walked outside the gig, there's no way that he would make it up the road alive, however, it actually suited him. If you ever get the chance and they come to your neighbourhood, if you like pick up their CD (Kettle Whistle) and if you like it, definately go. They have quite a following, and have quite a few records.

Here is a wide angle shot of the stage and fans.

Loch Lommond - 15 Miles North Of Glasgow - July 2002 - On the way to work, I noticed a poster on the bus saying "Take the 204 / 205 bus to the beautiful shores of Loch Lommond", so on the weekend we decided to take the plunge. After 30 minutes of finding where the "204 - Ballock" bus stop was, we were on our way. Now thinking that since Loch Lommond is only about 20 minutes away, we thought that the bus would take a nice direct route along the highway, leading us to the unspoiled beaches of the loch. How wrong were we. After 30 minutes on a packed bus, and nowhere near our destination, we started thinking that public transit wasn't maybe our best option. We still had our push bikes, but unfortunately they hadn't been ridden all year, and the tyres were a little flat - so our bikes weren't an option. Still on the bus, we both wondered if the trip would be worth it. About 60 minutes of dealing with summer heat and sealed windows, the bus started making a dinging sound - something wasn't right. The bus slowed. The crowd began to rumble. There was no loch in site. Were we even going in the right direction? Had we gotten on the wrong stop going in the wrong direction? After 90 minutes of sweltering heat (hey, it was the one summer day we had), the bus driver stopped the bus, and said there was a little mechanical problem and that he would have to stop there. We close to our destination. Our metal steed had brought us close to the loch, but could not continue the journey. We decided to grab a quick icecream, and continue our trek on foot. At the loch, they have just completed a multi-million pound observation deck and kinda a tourist stop. This is where the bus was to take us. We didn't make it. However, we did find a nice little path to the shores of the beach, and we wondered along a park and hill to a wee house. It was very splendid.

After we insured the motorbike (it had been "sleeping" at my garage at work since December) we jumped on the bike, and in less than 30 minutes were at the loch. These are the pictures from ontop of the observation tower.

In the observation tower, they have two "films". Well, the first isn't really a film, but more of an anamotronics play, where an otter follows a wishing feather from an eagle. It's obviously more for the kids. We were expecting more of a cartoon type of play, but this was interesting as well. The second film was a story centered around the song "Bonnie Banks Of Loch Lommond" and explained when and how it was written. If you don't know the story, then you'll have to go to the observation deck to learn about it. Really sad.

They have restored an old style paddle wheeler, and it now does trips around the loch. In the background is the park where I have just described in my bus story above.

This is looking north down the loch. I would show my pictures of Nessy, but Nessy is in Loch Ness. That's another set of slides.

Here is Kim on the top of the observation tower, with the loch behind her.

Loudoun Castle - June 2002 - At work, we have the ETC Social club. They organize different outings thru the year, including movies, the tattoo, and outings. Loudoun Castle was one of these events. Loudoun Castle was an old castle, that they have converted into a family park, including some rides and a petting zoo. The rides your typical carny types, with a couple half decent roller coasters. I think I was the only person in the trip to actually substain an injury when I had a head on crash in the bumper cars, and as a result, sprained my thumb. Oh, the shame.

I am not exactly sure what this is or was, but it was outside the castle.

Ian Goodwin and his daughter ride the mighty merry go round.

And, it was so fun, they decide to ride it again.

The town just outside the castle.

And a close-up of the town.

At Loudoun, they also have a petting zoo. These emu's were lucky enough to have an outside stall. Perfect on this summer's day. I think they are eating ice cream that was donated by some 3 year old.

This little goat spent the entire time standing on his goat hutch. He could have easily either jumped out to visit the people, or jumped out his little window. I guess maybe his goat crunchies are just too good to leave.

Isn't this just the most psycho lama you have ever seen?

And what would a petting zoo be without pigglets? This pair were totally manic running around the pen, snorting, chasing, digging. Just what you'd like to see in a little pig.

They're playing hide and go seek. Makes it much harder when there is only two piglets and nowhere to hide.

Camaflouge pig...lurking in the mist...

These little pigs were really funny. In addition of chasing each other around the pen, they also decided to persue mountain climbing. The only problem is that in a pig pen, there aren't any mountains, so they had to climb over their poor mother. Sometimes they would get halfway up, and then start to slide down. Or, their mother would get annonyed, and roll over, making the little pigglets run for cover.

There were about 6 of these little porkers in the pen. The spent the entire time grunting and chasing (in a playful manner) each other around. It was like a big pen of tag. If one would stop, then another would walk over to him, as if to say "what's wrong" then they would rest for a couple of minutes, then they would continue their game again.

Humm, what has this one found??? A lucky penny perhaps?

Despite their massive size, these two pigs were quite affectionate towards each other. If one would get up or roll over, the other one would as well.

Since these two seem to be preocupied with sleep, their ears double as sleeping googles. Good night wee pig.

New Lanark - 20 Miles From Glasgow - October 2001 - ScotRail had several different day outings, and New Lanark was one option we had. New Lanark is a town built on the principal that people are a worthwhile commity rather than just workers. The owner of the town was the first to offer schooling, a reasonable priced store, and good housing. The town was bulit by the river, so it could use the river for free power.

This picture is taken from one of the mills. The other buildings include the residents and the other mills. The mill is still a working mill but it doesn't have the production when it was in its hay day.

Here is the world famous New Lanark waterfall. Isn't it beautiful? Sure, it isn't as tall as Niagra, but it is has the same purpose - to let water fall over it.

Glasgow - Shawlands - December 2001 - When we first moved to Glasgow, we moved into Shawlands. Shawlands is on the south side of the river, and is starting to become a trendy part to live in. Not so much because of new pubs or taverns, but just because it's a folksy place to live. There's plenty of shops within walking distance, the train station is only one stop from city centre and there are two really nice parks within a 10 minute walk.

These pictures were taken around Christmas. This was the first year in about 20 where Glasgow had snow for Christmas. In Scotland, they will bet on almost anything - this year, one big bet was if it would snow for Christmas. I won't tell you who won.

This first picture is looking south down from our living room window.

On the left is a little park and on the right is the buildings from above.

This is looking East, with the little park now on the left. Just above the flats is Queens Park. It now has a really nice lagoon, swans, some walking trails, a greenhouse, mini-putt, lawn bowling, tennis courts, and plots for people to grow their own garden.

Here are two pictures of the park across the street. It's not very big, but just large enough for the local boys to play some footie. The second one has the sun just coming over the top.

This is looking north from our kitchen window. On the right is "The Jeanie" which is a famous local pub. Often people wouldn't know where we lived, but if you mention The Jeanie, they would know. It was a pub that supported The Rangers. They also do a really good lunch menu. In the center of the picture is the train station, and on the left is the local Safeway.

Here is our parking lot, and Safeway behind it. Unfortunately, there was the train tracks between us and Safeway, so you had to go all around to get to the store. So, I generally drove - kidding. In the parking lot, you'll notice a wee motorcycle. Fortunately, that isn't mine. I actually didn't have the bike for another couple of months, so it was safe for this snowfall.

And, here's a little closer shot of Safeway. We were fortunate in that we were on the 3rd floor (or 4th in NA terms), as we were able to see quite a distance. One more floor up would have been really nice. We were in one of the tallest buildings around.

And, here is a lonely sun, setting in the west. Good night from Shawlands.

Glasgow - Simshill - August 2002 - As you already know, Glasgow gets a lot of rain. On the plus side, we do get amazing sunsets. These are taken from our upstairs window, looking north west toward the city. I'll close the page with them. Nighty night.