Not Quite What the Doctor Ordered Part the Second

If you've been keeping up at the back you will know that we had planned to visit Great Western Auctions once again while we were in Glasgow. However we looked at the catalogue and looked at the lovely weather and decided that we should go out  rather than moulder away indoors.

We decided to go to Falkirk because it looked as though there was a fair bit to do, but then we discovered that there was a really big football match on there that day so it seemed like a good idea to avoid the place. So after a bit of Googling we set off for Pollok Hall. This is in the city limits of Glasgow, has huge grounds, some with animals, some with gardens and some beside the river. It was too nice a day to go inside we thought, but we'd have a nice lunch in the Restaurant and then spend some time walking in the park.

Big Mistake. Ohhhhhhh Big Big Mistake. The Restaurant was very inefficiently run, we waited ages for what was essentially cold food that only needed putting together on the plate, the quiche which the OH had and which was advertised as cheese and leek was in fact cheese and green olives, and he loathes olives almost as much as I do. The service was so slow that we passed on the option of dessert in the interests of having time to go for a walk, and it was exceedingly expensive. Sad to say this is the second time in about a month that National Trust for Scotland catering has fallen very short of expectation - the cake at the Mackintosh House a few weeks ago was not very nice and also horrendously expensive. I have no problem with paying fair prices for good food. This was neither fairly priced nor good.

 

Once outside I suffered a rather unexpected hay fever attack and what with that, the heat, the  packed nature of the grounds (obviously we weren't the only people who had thought a trip to Pollok was a good isea on a sunny weekend), the unsatisfactory lunch,  a bit of left over upset from the referencing comments, and the discovery that the Riverside Walk was actually not that close to the river, we called it a day and went home. .

 

I do have a photo of the horrendously expensive lunch

 

 

you can even see some of the olives the OH picked out of his quiche.

 

The gardens were lovely though and on a less crowded and slightly less hot day I think it would be a great place to go for a walk, and take a picnic.

 

 

That's a magnolia that is - the top one. . I can't remember how long it is since I lived anywhere where I had a snowflakes' chance of growing magnolia successfully. Leeds wasn't a possibility although oddly enough my parents had two lovely magnolias in their garden in Wetherby which was only 15 miles away. When I commented on this my Dad used to mutter something about  micro-climates, which was probably true but not much of a consolation. As for Orkney, you have about as much chance of growing a magnolia here as you have of cultivating tomatoes outside at the North Pole.

 

In the evening the OH and I went off to see the Scottish Opera production of The Mikado, but that, dear reader, is for another post.