miss marie's miscellany

Come for a walk in the park

After a wet morning, the sun came out and a long walk seemed a good idea. Very close to home is Pollok Park, a large country park with miles of paths for walking and cycling. It is home to the famous Burrell Collection, one of Glasgow's top attractions and also Pollok House.

A stroll through the woods to start

 

The trees are beautiful  but we're missing the sun, so let's go and stroll along beside the White Cart river.

Abundant wild flowers line the path

 

Standing on the eighteenth century bridge

 

To the right you can see up towards the old mill

To the left are some sweet little ducks swimming around 

I can see Pollok House through the trees

 

Let's walk up to the mill and watch the water cascading along

A look in the gardens and I see this bed planted entirely with iridescent blue thistles

and pretty pink echinachea

Heading back towards the house and the formal gardens outside. One can easily imagine it in its heyday as the big posh house on a grand estate. 

Nearly time to head home now, so let's enjoy a good look at the house

No time to look inside today at the wonderful paintings and Georgian interior, or go to the lovely cafe in the old kitchens in the basement; I will save that for another day in the near future!

I hope you enjoyed walking with me :-)

July collages

It's been a lovely month, holidays, flowers galore in the garden, happy times spent with people dear to me. So many photos too; I counted them up, 650 photos, phew! So after much deliberation, here's the best of my July.

Last days of summer

 Some good times from the end of the holiday, spent in Liverpool. A Sunday visit to another beach in Formby, just a couple of miles north of the statues from the last post. This beach is next to some gorgeous pinewoods, which normally we'd have had a stroll in; but we didn't want to miss the sunshine!  The day was just perfect for sitting on the beach feeling the sand between your toes

Watching a windsurfer

Looking at the clouds-very unusual stripy cloud formation

Flying a kite

Also, a Monday trip into Liverpool to the Albert dock and the Tate gallery to see the Colour Chart exhibition on just now, which was good to see; I feel more enlightened about the concepts which go into making pieces of art using media I wouldn't always expect to be used in an 'art' exhibition. This was a girls' outing so we had to include a trip to the posh cafe for a naughty but nice cream tea!

Whilst we girls were being culture vultures, the boys went off for something exciting. It was my nephew E's 11th birthday, so as a treat they went for a cruise on an amphibious vehicle called the Yellow Duckmarine,  Here it is approaching

And it's out of the water

It's safe to say they were very excited and enjoyed it immensely! 

Pizza and birthday cake afterwards!

 

Men on the beach

If my title has enticed you here in the hope of seeing bronzed adonises sunning themselves, then you will be a bit disappointed! The men on the beach I'm referring to are a group of sculptures by the artist Antony Gormley entitled 'Another Place' and which live on the stretch of beach near my dad's house. They are made in cast iron and are a copy of the artist's own body. They have been there for about 4 years now, and last year after much debate, it was decided that they will remain there permanently. 

The statues are submerged or revealed with the ebb and flow of the tides, and some seem to have sunk a little as this one has, as a result of those tides.

Being exposed to the elements and the salt water has eroded and rusted the cast iron

I love the way they all stare at the horizon, as if into infinity. 

The beach is fairly busy regularly, with walkers and dogs, runners, families out for the day, even the odd windsurfer and now visitors who come specifically to see the statues. There were quite a few folk there when I was, but somehow nearly all the pictures I took have only statues in them. That wasn't deliberate on my part, but it seems to emphasize the air of solitude and peace that the statues create. 

 

This is the view looking towards the docks and Liverpool.......still no people.......perhaps they all were camera-shy!?

I really like the way the beach has changed since these residents arrived; before that, it was a little unloved; now it seems invigourated and fresh, full of life. Whatever one's view of public art is, I think when the result is something as striking and beautiful as these silent sentinels, then it's something worth appreciating and applauding.

Yorkshire days 3

An awful weather forecast unfortunately necessitated a day indoors. We headed to Bradford to the National Media Museum, for a good look round.

 The museum has exhibitions of film, photography and TV, as well as a shop and an IMAX cinema. We started with an exhibition of the history of photography, with cameras galore  from its beginnings to the present day.

I particularly liked these 'ladies' cameras from the 1920's, made in lovely colours which Kodak Eastman hoped would be an enticement to get more women interested in photography.

On to TV Heaven, with lots of models used to make lots of old favourites

There was a mock-up of a TV studio where you could read the news and do all kinds of amazing things in front of a blue screen.......here you can see my nephew T surfing and my dad in the background about to do his Huw Edwards impersonation!

Some groovy old television sets

And TV cameras

There was also a great exhibition of animation with wonderful drawings and models from late 19th century to the latest 3D examples. My favourites were these models used in 'Jason and the Argonauts'

The set from 'The Wrong Trousers'

and Wallace and Gromit themselves!

 On to the photography; 2 excellent shows, a wonderful exhibition of the photographs of Don McCullin, so powerful and thought provoking and another exhibition entitled 'Animalism', exploring the place of animals in modern media; my favourite in this was a wall of portraits of different primates; the human characteristics were very striking and strangely beautiful (sadly, but understandably, no taking of photos allowed at either of these).  Some of these photos are available to view online, as well as archives of many of the museum's photographs.

We spent the whole afternoon here easily, there was so much to see and enjoy; in the words of Wallace and Gromit, it was a grand day out!

Yorkshire days 2

A visit to RHS Harlow Carr near Harrogate. I think I'll let the pictures do the talking. 

Well worth a visit if you are in the vicinity!

Yorkshire days

On holiday in Yorkshire, and having a great time. We're spending the week in a lovely old farmhouse, complete with hens in the garden

who provide us with lovely fresh eggs

So far we have been on a trip on the Embsay Steam railway; here's the engine changing ends

And the train waiting at the beautifully kept station at Embsay.

We visited the Bolton Abbey estate; what a fantastic place, so much beautiful countryside to walk around and enjoy

We took a canal cruise 

Whilst we were on the barge, lots of ducks came alongside wanting food. Amongst all the birds, we saw this swan and her cygnets.

Rainy days ahead....... more on that tomorrow.

Sunset and stained glass

Another beautiful late evening sky. I took this on Wednesday night at 11pm when the temperature was still an amazing 23 degrees. 

The weather has been so good, hot, hot, hot! Let's hope it carries on for a good summer, unlike last year's washout. 

I'm writing this post at my dad's house in Liverpool. There is some beautiful stained glass in his house,

where I and my siblings grew up, so we tend to not look at it as 

appreciatively as we might; 

it's just part of the fabric of the house 

But it is lovely, catching the light and filling the house with colour.

 

We are travelling to the Yorkshire Dales today for a week's holiday, can't wait! I hope I'll still be online and able to post, as we have lots of lovely outings and treats planned; but just in case I disappear for a bit, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and left kind and encouraging comments. I really appreciate you stopping by and your kind words, and I'm glad you're enjoying my photos and thoughts. 

Escape from the Granite City

This week I was working in Aberdeen, the Granite City, so called because every building is made in grey granite. It gives the city a distinctive look all its own, certainly, but it can be a little unrelenting, especially if you crave some colour. Just a short drive away, through some lovely countryside, I discovered a wonderful place to visit. It's called Pitmedden Garden, a National Trust property. The garden is laid out in formal parterre style, and looked after beautifully. The original design was made in 1675, and was re-created in the 1950's by the NT. It's about half a mile from the village of Pitmedden, so there's little passing traffic, meaning peace and quiet in which to really enjoy the garden, flowers,birds and insects.

This formal garden features over 5 miles of box hedging. I feel faint at the thought of cutting that lot into such impeccably neat and intricate patterns.

All around  were long avenues of grass paths, some plain like this one, light and springy to walk on

And some with long borders....this one is entirely planted with lupins

Tree lines surround each section of parterre

and dissect the garden too

 These lovely espalier apple trees were trained on the high surrounding walls. There are over 80 varieties of apple growing in the garden!

My highlights from the many wonderful flowers to be seen;

glowing red peony

                                                                                                  Meconopsis - blue poppy

And this gorgeous iris complete with sleeping bee

 

There are old statues 

and fountains

As I sat near this water feature, 2 little birds flew around near me, having a great time swooping around the hedges ( too fast to be captured in photo; I tried, but to no avail, I'm afraid).

The gardens have an 'Alice in Wonderland' quality about them,  such a tranquil and atmospheric place;  all one can hear is birdsong, insects buzzing, the sounds of a gardener working and teacups tinkling in the tearoom in the distance (no Mad Hatters thankfully). I had the gardens to myself almost all of the time I was there. Bliss!

At the gate, I noticed  this lovely paving

Made with love, as all gardens should be.

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Highland castles

I've been away, working in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. I go there because of my job twice a year, and always have a good time; it's a beautiful part of the world, with lots to see both historic and picturesque.

Here is the view looking up the River Ness towards Inverness Castle.

The weather was lovely (apart from one day when it poured and was chilly- the unpredictable Scottish climate! )

Here's the view looking the other way down river; eventually if you follow the river this way, you reach Loch Ness.

Yesterday,I decided to leave the city and visit Cawdor Castle which is only about 14 miles from Inverness. If you cast your mind back to school English Literature, you will remember that Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor, although in actual fact, Macbeth was born in the early 11th century and the castle was built in the 14th century, so the events of the play could not have happened there. But despite Shakespeare's poetic licence, the castle has a magical and mysterious air about it, one could imagine the 'Scottish play' to have taken place somewhere like this.

A burn runs alongside the castle, and next to that a wood with some enormous trees, Scots pine and oak.

I decided not to go inside the castle, purely for reasons of meanness! And to be honest, I really wanted to see the gardens which are beautful and plentiful.

There is a walled garden, quite formal in style.

In the sky, you can just see a plane taking off, as the castle is quite near Inverness Airport.

I love this combination of pink and orange, very bold and eye-catching.

There were paths edged with laburnum trees and bluebells.

An interesting sculptural fountain hidden away behind thick hedges which you had to push through to get in - a secret garden.

The planting around this was all white which looked lovely and set off the fountain well.

Next to the castle was a more informal garden

with this beautiful covered path with wildflowers at the side.

Some of the gorgeous flowers we saw

I'd love to know the name of this last plant, if anyone can identify it for me. From a distance, the flowers look square, almost like Scrabble tiles!

Let's have one last look at the castle.

Yes, it does look like a fairytale castle!

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