Well, that was a nice day....

We went into Stirling on Saturday; dove to the Park and Ride and then got the bus. We wanted to check out the new Sostrene Grone shop that opened in Stirling on Friday. I'd never heard of Sostrene Grone until last November when we wandered into their shop in Chambery and bought a couple of small things but we we very taken with it, so it was good news that they were planning one so local to us. 

It was very busy, which I suppose you would expect on Day 2. After shuffling round ( like IKEA it's a one way, go past everything we sell layout - although one doughty couple were en fact wandering around anticlockwise which was, you know, an achievement in the circumstances, but one which was very annoying to almost everyone  else in the shop.

After that we walked up to the Castle. We are having the grandsons to stay shortly, in fact they are arriving tomorrow evening, and Stirling Castle is one of the places we're planning to take them so we wanted to do a brief recce before then. The castle is strategically placed on top of a very large and steep hill and by the time we got to the castle gate we were both so exhausted we knew it would be a waste of time actually going in.  We  were too tired to walk around it. So we bought ourselves an ice cream instead, and sat on a defensive wall* and discussed the likelihood of getting the boys up the hill, the verdict being Not A Chance. Fortunately we had noticed a different park and ride bus which goes up the hill almost to the top, so come the day, we'll be catching that. 

*I want to say rampart, but I'm not 100% sure that I know exactly what a rampart is, so I'm gong with wall, rather than risk making an idiot of myself

Once we'd recovered we wandered back into town. I visited the library to see  if they had anything I might like to borrow before Bloody Scotland next month, and they did, and then we walked back to the bus station via another quick dip into Sostrene Grone, this time to buy something I'd been delighted to spot when we had our first look round. 

Photos.

The Wallace Monument from the castle walls. 

Three (hopefully) good reads and two packets of liquorice fudge, unfindable for many many months. Hooray! 

A Walk from a Book

I didn't mention our first trip to Dollar, which was long before the fund raising strawberry tea;   well -  I say long before, it was after the move, so long before is a relative term really. Anyway we went to check out the bookshop. I'd been told it was fantastic and it is indeed very good, and there's a cafe attached with nice cake and good coffee. They also had a small selection of Yoshi goods, so the OH got treated to a new keyring and some nice jigsaws and I treated myself to one of those. 

We also bought a Walk Book. because when you move somewhere new, that's what you do isn't it?  'Weekend walks in Stirling and Falkirk'  it was called and it seemed just the ticket. Alas I had not realised when it said weekend walks the vast majority of them would take me a whole weekend to do. 

I'm joking. but it's a long time since I did any regular walking of any length and when I looked through the book to mark walks of 2.5 kms or less as a starting point there were very very few. And most of them had the word 'steep'  somewhere in their description. And that's really quire off putting. 

But anyway last weekend, the weather being lovely, we decided to do one of the walks and the OH, who was given the choice went for one  that was rather longer then 2.5 km, but was at least basically on the flat and on a well marked footpath, it said. And it was. It was at a place we'd often passed signs to; the Gartmond Dam country park. The walk is basically a big circle around a reservoir created by a dam which a local bigwig built, not to create a reservoir and therefore a guaranteed water supply for the local villages, but to stop his mines from flooding. The water supply thing was an unlooked for, and happy, consequence. 

Lots of birds, lots of trees and some wonderful views of the hills in the background. So even though the walk  made my back ache it was a very enjoyable afternoon. 

We saw this heron

there was an island, just ripe for the Famous Five, or possibly the Swallows and Amazons to have an adventure on

There were, as promised, beautiful views of the hills

tree trunks on which to practice my Dorling Kindersely photography addiction 

 and as we came away, many sleepy ducks!

More walk reports as we do them. 

Ah well, Happy Birthday to me

Today is my birthday and we had plans. Actually ages ago  we had a Plan A that we changed at someone else's request to  Plan B,  and then Plan B got changed on us a week ago, so we sorted out a Plan C,  and Plan C was put paid to by Storm Floris. Seems the universe isn't keen for me to celebrate my birthday this year. Perhaps it's telling me to save up the celebrations  for next year's Big One. Maybe. 

However there were beautiful flowers

I don't think we have been without flowers since we moved in for one reason or another which is lovely. 

There was Icelandic inspired Danish chocolate coated liquorice , in various flavours, which I love.

And there were cards and other presents and it's been an OK day, but really I just wish we had been able to carry out Plan C. I thought we had left wind compromised plans behind us when we left Orkney, but it seems not. 

So Much to Catch Up On....

 So there was always the blog paradox, which was that when you were doing things you were too busy to blog about them, and when you weren't busy there was nothing to blog about. And now there's another consideration in the mix which is that I don't have my computer on nearly as much as I used to. In Orkney I would tend to switch it on when I got up and it stayed on most of the day  ( I hate to think of all the time I 'wasted' but on the other hand there wasn't so very much to do instead ) whereas nowadays I tend to switch it on just when I want  to do something specific. So those moments when I thought 'what shall I do now, oh I know, I'll write  a blog post' just don't happen any more. 

So there's  a place we've been to twice recently and I'll conflate the two trips into one post. This is the Doune Art and Antiques Centre ( yes, as seen on Antiques Road Trip,  and also recommended to me lots of times by local friends). 

It's huge and it's stuffed full of stuff and it's great fun to walk around, although a bit like Art Galleries, after the first hour you're a bit overwhelmed by it all. We'd been told the cafe was excellent; we didn't have lunch there but we did have  a drink and a cake. It was a very hot day and this was my, very impressive,  elderflower presse

I've discovered that elderflower can range from delicious to practically tasteless so it's always a bit of a gamble when you order it, but this one was definitely at the delicious end of the spectrum. As was the honeycomb cheesecakes which I see has been edited out of the photograph except for a teeny tiny corner. The OH had a coffee and a piece of Bakewell tart and they were good too apparently. 

On the way we had seen signs to the David Stirling memorial and decided that we would have a look at it on the way back. We had absolutely no idea who David Stirling was but it turns out that he founded what became the SAS. While I'm not a fan of knee jerk, 'let's put up a statue' type memorials, this was rather more well thought out with pieces of stone representing some of the terrain the newly formed unit worked in,  and as they were largely operating in North Africa to begin with it was yet another link to good old George who fought there too, although not in anything as prestigious  as the SAS. 

The man himself. 

                    and a memorial for the Long Range Desert Group which was the SAS forerunner

There were beautiful views of the surrounding countryside too, it really is in a stunning location.  

A couple of things had caught my eye when we had been walking round - well, let's be honest, lots of lovely things had caught my eye, none of which we needed but one of them that I couldn't get out of my mind was this 

now doing duty as a bedside table for me. Not one for the non-fantasy fans obviously, but I loved it and I did actually need  a bedside table. 

We also need mirrors. This house had no mirrors of any description, not in the bathrooms, not on the front of bathroom cabinets (also conspicuous by their absence when we moved in  along with towel rails!) and not on the door of the otherwise excellent built in wardrobes. I'd seen a mirror that I thought would go nicely in the bedroom, a plain-ish one with a narrow gold frame and a little Greek key detail round the edge. I'd also seen one that I loved but doubted  would 'go'; a circular  Arts and Crafts one which could have come straight out of an illustration for Sleeping Beauty. Guess which one we came away with? 

Until about 18 months ago I'd have bought the plain gold framed square because it 'went' and 'would do', but in a change which I see as progress I bought the one I really loved instead. 

A Crafty Thing

 

Many many years ago a friend in Canada gave me instructions for making a fabric wreath after I had admired one she had made herself. It was so long ago that I had no idea where in the UK I would get the fundamental item necessary to make it - a Styrofoam wreath base. I suspect at the time I wouldn't have been able to find one here for love nor money. 

Fast forward a couple of decades and I am somewhere with my sister and I see a Styrofoam wreath and I buy it, thinking, at last! I can make one of those fabric wreath things. And the wreath has stayed in my miscellaneous craft materials box ever since. because somehow I never got around to giving it  a go.  

Recently I saw the new Tilde fabric Christmas range and thought I'd like to make a Christmas wreath, with that but Tilde fabric is Not Cheap and I was put off buying it by the thought that I might make a mess of it which would be a waste of money. And then - a lightbulb moment. Somewhere in my small fabric stash I thought I might have a Tilde charm pack that had come free with a magazine a long time ago .... I went for a rootle. 

I found the wreath, I found the charm pack, I found the time and voilà! a fabric wreath. I'm so pleased with it. It is so very pretty. So now I can buy the fabric and embark on making a Christmas wreath without worry. There's just one small problem - I cannot find a Styrofoam wreath to buy in a sensible size! However I suspect Mr Amazon can be relied upon to have one if I have a look,  and possibly the local craft places will have more suitable sizes nearer to Christmas.  

Meanwhile this one needs a ribbon and a hook to hang it from. 

A Couple of Cheery Things for a Grey Day

 I had some happy mail last week. This was the 2nd 2025 quarter for the Little Grey Cells Club from Henny Penny Makes.

That's not at all true to the colour of the one on the left! Due to the nature of the long term project these are going into, half of these are now used up, which is pleasing.

We also had a visit from some friends who we now live much nearer to, which is a good thing, and they brought us a lovely bunch of sunflowers. 

It's a bit of a cool grey day here and I'm a tad under the weather so the cheerful colours are a nice bright spot! 

Doon the Watter

 

Last Christmas the OH's brother bought him a voucher for a cruise on the Waverley, the world's last remaining working paddle steamer. It was good for the whole year, but time was ticking on and it doesn't stay to cruise from Glasgow all year round, so we got ourselves focussed and booked a trip for Sunday just gone. We opted for a Full Day and not getting off at either of the two ports of call, and both of those are decisions which we would not make again, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing. 

It was an early start, too early for us to get there in time if  combined with a reasonable getting up time in Alloa, so we went over to Glasgow on Saturday, caught up with an academic friend in the afternoon and spent the night at the Glasgow flat. One of the good things about the move, amongst multifarious others, is that we get to see a lot more of son no. 2 who lives there. Even being so close, the next morning was an early-ish start to get to the Glasgow Science Centre from where Waverley departs. (I was going to say sails, but obviously that wouldn't be right, unless sails is an acceptable generic term for the movement of all boats, however powered, Which it may well be. ) Anyway, we got there, and there she was. 

And there also was a piper. To be fair he wasn't provided by the Waverley people to pipe us on board, he was just a young lad taking the chance to earn some pocket money and he didn't stay long. Although long enough to give us a quick swirl of Highland Cathedral, which, don't get me wrong, is a lovely tune, but it does tend to stay with you all day. To that extent it was much less embarrassing than when we boarded The Ghan all those years ago and were greeted as we arrived on the platform with a trumpet fanfare. So embarrassing. 

So the cruise went all along the Clyde, into the Clyde estuary and then turned right ( yes, I know) along the coast, past a couple of islands called the Cumbraes, along the east shore of Arran and through the Kyles of Bute into Loch Scriven. It was impossible to take good photographs of the wonderful scenery because the boat was super full, and there were just too many heads, and bodies, always in the way. Here however is a photo of the entry to Loch Scriven just as we turned around to leave it, with a few arms and bits of boat tubing cropped off. I risked life and limb, not to mention losing my phone, to take this picture, leaning out over the side of the boat as far as I dared so I hope it's appreciated! 

Overall, it was beautiful, a lot of the time it was relaxing, most of the time we had really good weather, warm but overcast so the sun didn't get too hot. It was fascinating to sail down the Clyde estuary and think of my PH D subject dong the same decades ago, first as a student when he used to charter yachts in his vacations and later as he stood on a troopship and glided down the Clyde at the start of the long journey to the North African coast. 

On the downside we were 10 hours on the boat which is a long time to be on a smallish boat with a lot  of other people especially when there are slightly too few seats to accommodate everyone. The seats, except in the eating places, are hard and you really felt them after the first 90 minutes. Rather than the whole day we could have bought a ticket that would have allowed us to get off and then back on at either Rothesay or Largs and in retrospect a few hours in Rothesay might have been fun. But we didn't know that when we booked and I don't think either of us had actually got our heads round quite how small the boat is so that the reality of of ten hours on it wasn't something we had properly internalised. 

Overall though, although I wouldn't do it again, I'm glad we've done it once.