Homeward Bound

Getting near to Portsmouth on the Brittany Ferry

Made it back home a day early (Thursday) after driving up through England all day.  Very surprised  when a car started tooting at us on the M6 motorway .... turned out to be Ian & Pauline, our next-door neighbours who were also on their way home from France!

Cows On Cows

Somebody - not me! - has put two little cows on top of one of the big cows.   

Later Ferry

We've re-booked our ferry crossing to this Thursday afternoon.  We may leave here on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday, staying overnight at La Rochelle.  It will be after 9 pm when the ship docks at Southampton so we plan to stay in an hotel near Oxford and continue the drive up to Glasgow on Friday.

Bizarre Bride

This is a late entry to the scarecrow competition.  The story is that it is Nelly the Belgian's actual wedding dress.  Nobody knows if it was an unhappy marriage or not.  Maybe the husband-to-be failed to show up?  

Giant Haystack

They've built the most gigantic haystack outside the villae.  It is the biggest I have ever seen anywhere. 

Biscarrosse Beach

After Bordeaux, we drove down to Biscarrose, which is on the Atlantic Ocean  so there are always huge waves.  When we got there, it was farr too windy to risk going in the water.  Great weather for kite-surfing though!  Shortly after this photo, it started to rain very heavily so we drove back to Montjoi.

Bordeaux

The Morroir d'eau (water mirror) in the town centre.  The water comes up as a fine  mist

             

Having trouble with the captions.  Last photo is from the roof of the hotel.  There is a bar/ disco with trees and sand and even a jacuzzi.  Prices were frightening:  88 euros for the cheapest bottle of champagne.

At The Bottom Of The Garden

 

Any Old Iron

   






























I found this in the market for 3 euros and bought it to add to our collection of antique irons.  This is a very early electric iron with a wooden handle for insulation and comfort.  There is no thermostat or anything: you just plugged it in, waited for it to heat up and guessed the heat.  You could judge the heat quite well by spitting on it.  The brand name is a bit scary  - SPARK

Huge Moon

 

I took this photo at sunset last night.    I did not use any special lenses or a tripod ... it is just a quick snapshot in ideal conditions.  I am very impressed by the detail in the photo.  Although it doesn't look it, the sky was still blue at the time and that was the secret.  It is actually much more tricky to get a good photo of the moon at night, even though appears to be brighter and sharper.

Moissac Abbey

Sometimes, when you go into the Abbey at Moissac, you will find it empty but full of music.  That's because it has a very high quality organ and organists love to practice on it.  We were meeting Linda for lunch outside the Abbey and we arrived very early so we went inside and this is a clip of what we heard.  It was a young woman playing her heart out, enjoying the magnificent sound.

Big Stag Beetle

 

This creature was annoying Marion the other night by flying around too close to the table at the bottom of the garden so I swatted it into the pool.  Next morning, I had to fish it out of the skimmer.

Scary Lady

 

We were having a coffee with apricot tart in Moissac when I noticed this scary woman at the other table.  I think it was the bright red lipstick and the unusual hairstyle that caught my eye.  Slowly it began to dawn on me: I had actually met her somewhere before.  But where?  The name David Brown drifted into my mind.  That's it!  She is a famous American chef who lives on a barge near Agen and runs a cookery school on the barge.  I have seen the barge on TV on a cookery programme and I still can't quite remember where we met.

Not So Much a Swimming-pool, More A Hot Tub

We really need the swimming pool here!  Today the temperature in the shade is 32C and the poolwater is up at 27C.  Even so, it really cools you down.

Spent the morning working on the pool to get it back into order.  Because the weather here has been so terrible, it means more wind and rain which leads to much more dust and dirt in the pool.  It all has to be hoovered and filtered for days to get it clear.  At the same time, I have to add dilute acid to raise the pH because the tap water is very alkaline.  A further complication is that the pump would not work when we got here because the condenser had failed and that means that the electric motor will not start every time it is switched on.  I know how to do it by hand but we can't rely on the timer to switch it on and off.

Frank has ordered a new condenser so it should be fixed in a few days.

Wheel Trouble

The drive down to Portsmouth was OK but when we got to France, where the roads are smoother and the speed limit 10 mph faster, I noticed that the steering wheel wa shaking a lot.  That usually means wheel trouble.

Took the car to a garage in Valence today and they agreed that it must be the fault of the new tyres.  They had to take all four wheels off and balance every one using a special machine.  It cost 53 euros to get them fixed.

I am pretty angry about this because when you get new tyres fitted, part of the cost includes re-balancing them.  It isn't just a matter of the wheel shaking: being out of balance damages the car as well.

New Wheels, Ready To Roll

I chanced to look at the front wheels of the car recently and noticed with horror that they were getting near to the legal limit of wear.  Certainly not enough tread left to do the 2,000-mile round trip to France plusall the extra miles we do when we are there.  Luckliy the tyre place near Sainsbury's had a set of the right size and type in stock and in the space of 20 minutes, I had four new tyres.  All we have to do now is to pack the car early this Monday and we'll be ready to drive to the ferry at Portsmouth.

My First Payslip

I was sorting out some boxes of old papers and things when I found this envelope which I thought I had lost. The date on the letter is 1948 so I must have been five years old.  I got a 2/6 coin we called a half-crown.  It was worth a lot then even though in decimal money it would be only 12.5p.

My mother was an actress with the famous Glasgow Unity Theatre group and the play must have needed some small children.  The only thing I really remember is that I was also given a Cadbury's chocolate bar (remember sweets were strictly rationed) which was like a small box of Dairy Milk chocolates all fused together so that each piece had a different centre.  It must have blown my tiny mind because I can still see it in my hand!

Herald Diary, Today

 

Dog Scared Of Its Own Farts

It seems to be true!  Watch THIS

Plane Sculptures

   These are two of the many sculptures in the gardens of Plane Castle.  You probably think this must be a very grand place and that the Wrights have tons of money.  Not so.  John built most of it himself using cheap recycled materials.  A lot of the sculptures were donated and they are not very good.  Even in the brand new house, all the doors, sinks, WCs and furniture are from the scrapyard.

Tarbert Wedding

This Friday we are off to Tarbert on Loch Fyne for a wedding and won't be back until Saturday evening.  It is my cousin Marleen's younger daughter Sandi who is getting married to Patrick.  It will be a great chance to meet up with everyone from that side of the family.

The Wright Stuff

Yesterday - Monday 24th - we drove up towards Stirling to visit old neighbours - John & Nancy Wright.  They used to live in the big house at the lane in Kingsborough and their kids were the same ages as ours.  He became a very unusual minister in the Church of Scotland.  About 25 years ago, he bought a ruined castle near Bannockburn and restored it with the help of his son Bruce. Then he re-built the Grand Hall beside it and also built a modern house nearby.  There are huge grounds so John dug out a small lake with an island in the middle of it to drain the land.  Last year, they moved into a very modern house which he had designed and built in the gigantic gardens.  You can get some idea of the place from the website.

What you can't see is what an absolute ruin the place was when they bought it.  They lived in a tiny caravan at the foot of the tower when we first went to visit many years ago.  The gardens are quite overgrown now and full of statues.  They also have ducks, dogs, and a peacock.

Amazing Matrix Dance

Watch this Japanese guy perform the whole of The Matrix as a dance.  Maybe you've seen it already because it has had over 2 million hits on YouTube!

100-Year-Old Paint

Walking up the lane from Byres Road, we stopped off at the retro shop in the green hut to look at old Marion Donaldson dresses and then we passed by the big junk shop.  Marion found some nice industrial china things that were like bottles with a pouring lip and I found this tin of paint for £5.  Judging by the style of the label it must be around one hundred years old and .... it has never been opened!  

It was really heavy to carry home.  It is not at all like modern tins of paint, more like a milk-churn in shape.  Maybe you had to use a tin-opener to open it?  Look at the trade mark:  it has windmills because it is made in Holland and a Japanese lady to suggest that the paint is as good as the best Japan lacquer finish.

Panhandler Party in New York Subway

Linda Mitchell sent me this video link..  I think it goes on a bit too long but the idea is a good one.

Ducks and Eggs

Lovely trip to Balmaha on Wednesday.  Got the boat over to the island and had the place to ourselves because it was late afternoon.  Marion picked some wild garlic and foxgloves to paint at home and them left them behind on the chair in the pub.

The eggs are seagull eggs - they are so well-camouflaged that I nearly stepped right onto them.  Off course, the gulls were screaming at me to keep away.

Gaga Gag

Apologies

I've just realised that I have been neglecting our blog for the last few weeks.  It happened when I was ill in France and then I forgot about it when I got back home.

Alfie

 

This is Alfie in costume for the play "A Doll's House".  It was written in 1879 by the Norwegian playwright Ibsen - hence the old-fashioned costumes.

Back Home In Sunny Glasgow

Left Montjoi at 7 am this morning .... it was 9C and raining heavily all the way to Carcassonne airport.  When we landed at Prestwick, it was wonderfully warm ... exactly the opposite of how things normally are.  Apart from one nice day at the seaside, it was pretty horrible weather all the time we were there.  Plus I felt rotten the whole time, which didn't help.  In fact, if Sunday hadn't been forecast to be so sunny, we would have cut our stay short and come home.

French farmers are glad that the water reserves have been topped up but also worries by the fact that it has been so cold that everything - especially the cherries and the melons which are very important in our area - are so late this year.

A little bit of good news: one of the paintings that Marion put in for the competition at the Maclaurin Gallery in Ayr has been accepted.

Biarritz Beach

       

She's No Dummy

 St Enoch's Shopping Mall today.  Thought I was seeing things .... and then she winked at me! 

Cloned!

Phone call from Royal Bank credit card this morning to tell me our credit cards had been cancelled and were now useless. The reason?  Someone had cloned my card  and they wouldn't tell me how they knew. The woman in the call centre checked over all the recent entries with me and they were all OK.  The only one that I didn't know about was a deposit taken by the car hire company in France.  Turns out Royal Bank have refused this charge so we are going to have trouble tomorrow morning when we go to pick up the car in Carcassonne!

'Don't worry' they said 'we'll sent you new cards with a new account number to your home address in the next 7-10 days'.  Fat lot of use that'll be in Montjoi.

Iona Lambs

 There were lots of little black lambs on Iona.  The funny thing was that all their mothers were white.

More Videos At Sea

The first one is taken with my phone right at the mouth of Fingal's Cave.   The second clip is of the boat coming to pick us up.  It was very tricky because of the waves and the tide - we had to time it just right and leap onto the boat from the jetty!  Below are a couple more photos to show what it was like on the boat.

You had to hold on at all times, the sea was so lumpy

Not only was it raining but we also got soaked by sea spray

Lord Macleod by David A Donaldson

George Macleod was the man who raised the money to restore the Abbey on Iona and also founded the Iona Community Centre.  He was given the title of Lord Macleod of Fuinary in recognition of his work. 

When he retired, the Iona Community commisioned David A Donaldson (my father) to paint his portrait.  It is no secret that George Macleod and his wife both hated the painting, probably because it showed what he was really like.

The boatman who took us out to Staffa told us that the original painting was hanging in the Abbey in a part that was not open to the public.  I had only ever seen a photo of it so we went and got permission to see the painting.  The man that let us in assured us that it was an excellent likeness of Macleod - he had known him really well -  and it captured "one of his three faces" as he put it.

Inside Fingal's Cave On Staffa

This is a short movie clip taken from inside the cave.

Island of Iona

On Saturday we are going off to Iona for the weekend.  Iona is a tiny island off the tip of a much bigger island called Mull.  To get there, we have to drive up to the port of Oban , take the car ferry to Mull, drive another 30 miles and then take a 10-minute ferry to Iona.  Visitors aren't allowed cars on the island so we leave our car on Mull.  You can see from the photo that it is a tiny island.  The hotel is right beside the ferry.

From Iona, you can get boat trips out to the legendary Fingal's Cave island which is made of black volcanic rock in hexagonal columns.  There should be puffins nesting there at this time of year.

Many famous Scottish painters have been to Iona - this painting is by Cadell.

And this is an aerial photo of where we will be staying.