New pensioner, growing old disgracefully. Sort of semi-retired.
Previously third sector, mostly fighting fuel poverty and campaigning for warm, dry homes.
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekLforLight
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#StKilda
94 years ago today, the last 36 inhabitants left St Kilda to start new lives on mainland Scotland. How difficult that must have been.
This is some of what they were leaving behind ......
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekLforLight
Until the day breaks
And the shadows flee away,
In my thoughts I will go my way to the mountain .....
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMforMusic
If I cried out loud
over sorrows I’ve known
And the secrets I’ve heard
It would ease my mind
Someone sharing the load
But I won’t breathe a word
We’re two of a kind
Silence and I
🎼🎶🎵🎶
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#FlowersOnFriday
Today feels like a white kinda day. Even though I’m trying not to think about the fact that it’s Friday the 13th 😳😂
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMforMusic
My signed Studio Proof print of ‘The Singing Butler’ by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
A marble statue of Ruth in the Kibble Palace, Glasgow. The sculptor was Giovanni Ciniselli from Milan, who specialised in mythical/biblical characters until his death in Rome in 1883.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
Butter Bridge, spanning the Kinglas Water. Built in 1749 as part of a military road from Dumbarton to Inveraray. The name comes from when cattle grazed here, producing milk which was then turned into butter.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
#SundayYellow
from yesterday’s wanders. And a bonus bumblebee - there have been so few this year, so it was good to see them out in force 🐝🐝🐝
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMforMusic
Concert pipe organ in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, it has 2,889 pipes. It’s used for daily organ recitals, with light, popular music played Monday-Saturday and more classical music on Sunday 🎼🎶🎵🎶
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
Italian Chapel, Orkney - built by Italian PoWs during WWII, using limited materials (including corned beef tins and old car parts!).
(Okay - that’s me peaked! I might struggle for another 6 days of ‘Italy’)
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#SundayYellow
💛
Bright yellow mullein. There’s a very, very, titchy wee black bug (scientific name) just to the left of the filament. And there’s a not-quite-so-wee green bug (another scientific name) right at the bottom of the flower 🤣
Have the best of days everyone 😊💛
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekEforElectricity
Water wheel - a simple turbine that can be connected to a generator to produce electricity - harnessing the power of water 💧
Have a wonderful day everyone 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
Getting organised for the day ahead - brilliant weather (for now😂)
A few pics from yesterday’s trip to Whithorn Priory/Church/Museum. The first Christian community in Scotland was established here by St Ninian in 397AD.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekDforDoubles
Glasgow street art again, sorry (not sorry). Colourful jellyfish paste-up art by Italian artist STFLNE 😊
Have a wonderful day, everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMforMusic
Church organ in St Cuthbert’s, Kirkcudbright. The current church was built in 1838, the organ was bought in 1886. It was built by the same company that made the organs for Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
In Canada Inukshuks were built by the Inuit to guide travellers, warn of danger, help hunters. Inukshuks are symbolic of generations of Inuit
#Knowledge
re how to survive on the land in the traditional way
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#FlowersOnFriday
Vibrant button-like tansy - it’s irresistible to bees and ladybirds, though of course there were none around when I took this photo yesterday 🤣
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
St Kilda - remote archipelago in N Atlantic. Inhabited for 4,000 years - people living on gannets, puffins (meat, eggs and oil) and some farming.
Evacuated in 1930 - all 36 islanders voted to leave as way of life was no longer sustainable🙁
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
And today I give you - Popeye the Sailor Man and his Italian girlfriend.
It’s all right, I’ll see myself out.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekLforLight
With the raging storm that clears the sky and brings out the golden light,
I will fight these doubts and embrace my dreams,
That I have been yearning to touch and feel
Sheetal Dubey
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
Skara Brae - Neolithic settlement in Orkney, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Homes from 5,000 years ago. Linked by covered passages, each has 'fitted' stone furniture including shelving and box beds!
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
Glasgow University, founded in 1451. Its motto is Via Veritas Vita (The Way, The Truth, The Life). It provides the
#Knowledge
base that prepares students for careers in law, medicine, engineering, et al.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekLforLight
Don’t ignore, listen to me now (all is not forsaken)
You need never feel broken again
Sometimes darkness
Can show you the light
- Disturbed -
Have the best of days everyone 😊
@harlan_wx
#WhateverWednesday
Garden disaster this year - usually 30 or so giant poppies, but not a single one. And no allium appeared - usually a dozen or so. What I do have is loads of beautiful blue agapanthus! 😍
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekJforJourney
‘O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won’
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
Every flower has its own special meaning or symbolism, and this can be influenced by the variety and colour, or even by the number gifted.
#Knowledge
of the language of flowers is called floriography.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekJforJourney
My brothers & 2 friends on 'Run for the Sun' banger rally a few years ago. Calais to Almeria, 23 teams completing mad challenges. All vehicles entering had to cost less than £200! They raised £6.5k for cancer charities.
What a
#journey
!😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMforMusic
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
~ Alan Parsons/Eric Woolfson ~
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekJforJourney
Even if a
#Journey
is just one small step, there's no place like home. Choose Earth.
Street art by RogueOne. Designed to align with COP26 international climate change conference held in Glasgow in 2021
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
Millefiori Appasimento - red wine from the Veneto region of Italy.
What a find for the challenge! Do you have any idea how many Italian wines there are? I could keep this going for the rest of the year 🤣
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekJforJourney
Morgan Motor Company. Handmade, using a combination of hand tools and modern equipment - 21st century coachbuilding. You don't just buy, you commission and configure it to suit you - a customised
#journey
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
With the right
#Knowledge
, rose hips can be used to make herbal tea, with high levels of antioxidants that can boost the immune system. Rose hips can also be used in jams, jellies and various beverages.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
Stewart Memorial Fountain celebrating the Loch Katrine Aqueduct (Victorian megastructure providing clean water to over 1m people). Sir Walter Scott's 'Lady of the Lake' provided the theme for the sculptures.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
Art-led sculptures in Glasgow for Blood Cancer Awareness Month 2024, shining a light on the 10 main symptoms.
#Knowledge
of the symptoms can lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
Her
#Knowledge
of the history of industrial disputes led to artist Ruth Ewan producing this clock. Design is based on an illustration by Ralph Chaplin for the Industrial Workers of the World Union in 1917
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekFforFaces
One of James Klinge’s street art pieces - ‘Study of a Woman in Black Series’ - near Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow. Complete with obligatory graffiti 🙄
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekKforKnowledge
Glasgow University’s new Maths & Stats building. The graphics used are a visual representation of the
#Knowledge
of staff, who provided handwritten diagrams and equations used in their current research.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekJforJourney
Glasgow street art by Ross MacRae. These are just the type of road gremlins you don’t want if you’re off on a
#Journey
- diversions, temporary lights, traffic cones everywhere, road rage 🙄
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekDforDoubles
The double towers of the Absolute World complex in Mississauga, Ontario.
Commonly known as the Marilyn Monroe towers because of the curvaceous shape!
Have a wonderful day everyone 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
Late start today after late night 🍷🍺🙄 - treasure hunt was brilliant! 40ish teams haring around solving clues, finding bizarre ‘treasure’ items. Devastated we didn’t win (we were rubbish tbh) 🤣
Some recent pics
Have the best of days everyone 😊
Today’s
#DailyPictureTheme
is ‘Favourite picture from June’. This is actually my favourite photo so far this year 😊
Abandoned fishing boat, Salen, Isle of Mull
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
We’re Here Because We’re Here - artwork event held throughout Britain on the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.
1,600 volunteers dressed as WW1 soldiers, each representing a real named individual who died on the first day of battle. Sad.
😥
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekFforFaces
Faces from the past. Outdoor art installation at La Pulperie de Chicoutimi (regional museum in Saguenay, Quebec) showing pictures of real people who worked at the paper mill in the early 1900s.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
Still awake 🙄 so I’ve been going through and picking out a few more photos from yesterday’s outing to Culzean Castle (and I’m sure there will be more 🤣)
If you’re visiting Scotland, add this place to your list 😍
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekEforElectricity
Lawers Dam, part of the Breadalbane Hydroelectric Scheme. Built across the end of Lochan na Lairige to create a reservoir which feeds the Finlarig power station on Loch Tay - harnessing the power of water.
Have a wonderful day everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
‘Lafaruk Madonna’ - a triptych painted on old flour bags by Italian Giuseppe Baldan for the mud hut chapel in his PoW camp in Somalia. The Italian flag appears in one corner, disguised as washing on a line.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekDforDoubles
These sheep are brothers from different mothers!
‘Flock to the Show’ - a public art trail to raise awareness of farming issues including climate change, rural isolation, etc & raise funds for projects in the rural sector.
Happy Monday all 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekMforMusic
Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo - an annual event featuring performers from the British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international bands 🎼🎵🎶
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#HappyFriendshipDay
- an opportunity to appreciate the people who support and encourage us, who are thoughtful and kind in word and deed. Reach out, reconnect, check up - because we’re often guilty of taking friendship for granted.
Have the best of (friendship) days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekGforGreen
More Glasgow street art 😁
Collaboration between Glasgow Uni & Yardworks and intended as a temporary open air gallery - this is one of a series of artworks that decorate hoardings, hiding construction work.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#SundayYellow
💛
Some Glasgow street art for
#SundayYellow
- a paste-up of Billy Connolly I came across a few years ago.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
The hounds on holiday, enjoying their gelato per cagnolini in spiaggia.
Yes, I know I called it doggy ice cream when I posted this a few weeks ago, but those were different times.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekIforItaly
Bronze bust of Griselda. She was the heroine of Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’, a collection of earthy, explicit tales. Boccaccio wrote it in Tuscan, making it more widely accessible to people
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
Hard to believe it’s been 10 days, but time for home🙁
Sorry to be leaving because this genuinely is my happiest of happy places. If I ever get round to full time retirement I might have to look at moving back here 🤣
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
Last lot - when the Kennedys gave Culzean castle to the Nat Trust for Scotland, they stipulated the top floor suite be gifted to General Dwight D Eisenhower for the duration of his lifetime! (see photo of his office)
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
Derelict train at Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean.
A natural cave system on the England/Wales border extensively mined for iron ore and ochre for 4,500 years! Now a mining museum (ochre still mined).
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekFforFaces
Mask associated with Chhau, a semi-classical dance form with tribal, martial and folk origins. This mask is specifically from Purulia, West Bengal.
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#DailyPictureTheme
#Painting
Salvador Dali’s incredible ‘Christ of St John of the Cross’ - one of my favourite artists and definitely my favourite painting ❤️
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekDforDoubles
Floating Heads art installation designed by Sophy Cave. Hanging above the foyer of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, there are more than 50 heads displaying different emotions including joy and despair.
Have a wonderful day everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekFforFaces
Mural commissioned by Rock Trust, a Scottish charity helping young people move on from/avoid homelessness. Artists - Gaz Mac and Voyder.
Needless to say, the graffiti’s not part of the original artwork 🙄
Have the best of days everyone 😊
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekHforHistory
Grave of Robert Lennox, shot by Sir Robert Grierson of Lag in 1685. Grierson was a notorious persecutor of Covenanters like Lennox, staunch Presbyterians fighting for their religious freedom. Tough times ☹️
Have the best of days everyone 😊
So, I was looking for a ‘moody and misty’ photo in response to someone else’s post. Thought I had one from Orkney but can’t find it 🙁.
I did find this though - a grave with a wooden surround. Can’t remember where this was - maybe Deerness? If it’s original it’s lasting well!
#AlphabetChallenge
#WeekBforBlue
Very blue sunset - photo taken from Chalet le Refuge du Pecheur near Les Escoumins. Following the Route des Baleines but didn't see a single whale 🫤 . Views like this made it so worthwhile though 😊
#TouristInMyOwnCountry
What a fantastic day. Visited Threave Gardens near Castle Douglas - absolutely glorious, especially in the sunshine ☀️
Have the best of days everyone 😊