ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.
Recently I had to go through to Cambuslang for a few days. Cambuslang Church Spire above with Cambuslang Park behind it. As you can see here it was a very wet, misty October day but I still managed a four hour walk around the park and up into Holmhills Wood Community Park which lies just across the road from it.
Luckily, Cambuslang Park sits in a wooded gorge so it is fairly sheltered which was just as well as it rained very heavily at times reverting to light drizzle when the frequent sudden downpours relented. The start of autumn colours made it special though.
A good walk can be had by going up Greenlees Road past Cambuslang Institute then taking a lane on left into the park just above Kirkhill Railway Station. It seems to be in two parts. A thickly wooded gorge section at the end nearest the town centre...
...then a more open, wider section at the top end.Seen here.
Roughly halfway up the park you come to the hollow where this took place although back then it may have been an open hidden hollow as you would be pushed to get thousands of folk in here now with all the tree cover and stream width running through this hollow today.
The same hollow in October 2022. Following this stream up through the park should lead you into the top half.
One good thing about a wet day is any waterfalls, rivers, or streams are at their best, foaming and tumbling downhill.
Aromatic pine balls. If stuck in the wilds you can mash these up in water and they make a natural disinfectant for the floor as insects don't like the strong pine smell apparently. Not sure if it would work for midges in summer.
The top half of the park is wide, flat, and open plan with lovely, 'last of the season' colourful blooms. Still mild and damp so no overnight frosts yet to kill these Early October borders.
Size for size, at this late stage in the year, the Cambuslang Park flower borders easily outshone the borders in Glasgow's prestigious Botanic Gardens as I was there recently as well. Maybe it's a manpower thing. With Brexit and the cost of living crisis many people are swapping jobs for ones with higher pay as there's millions of unfilled vacancy's now, especially in the low paid sector like hospitality, the NHS, care workers, etc... and many people left or changed occupations during the pandemic.
Flower display. Cambuslang Upper Park.
Autumnal delights before the grey of winter seeps in.
A planetarium of flowers, in fact...
Amber fungi.
A bench out of the rain. Lunch stop in Cambuslang Upper Park. You can also enter it from just above Cambuslang Parish Church as well, spire visible here. A handy landmark for first time visitors. Anyone wanting a full half day walk can use Cambuslang Park, Holmhills Woods, then continue down along the River Clyde Walkway from Cambuslang Bridge to Westburn for a full green circular tour of this district. Allow around 4 hours at a steady pace. Five hours if going slow with rest stops. A couple of hours if jogging round with one substantial long ascent up through the park.
Holmhills Wood Community Park can be found on the other side of Greenlees Road from Cambuslang Upper Park and the entrance is signposted. Instead of running up and down the slope this second park is a branch off the main truck running between Greenlees Road and West Coats Road. It's set along an open ridge line with good views over the east of the city and it used to be two derelict farms until it was replaced by the community woodland and a few wildlife ponds. I remember them being dug about a decade ago and the old farm building that used to stand here. Even ten years can see trees and bushes add fifteen feet of height to them.
One of the ponds with the rain hammering down.
'Like tears in rain.' Autumn tree colours. A powerful dark anthem that deserves to be better known than it is. ..........Soul poetry in the lyrics. It's a classic. Some songs just grab you and this is one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQibeSkewhQ
Holmhills Woodlands.
Wet flowers.
Wet and wild. A path in the rain.
Juicy big eating apples growing wild... so I had one. It was excellent! Forty at least remaining on this one tree though it's in another part of this walk.
Happy bug in the rain... as was I. Having achieved my blog ambition long ago of walking outdoors for ten years in Scotland without a raindrop ever falling on me, I didn't mind one day of bad weather. I still prefer sunshine mind you but as it's such a novelty for me to walk in the rain for a few hours I did enjoy it. And 'she' did as well. Like tears in rain.
9 comments:
I actually like walking in drizzle sometimes - especially on a misty night...
I'm surprised that, as a northerner you say the rather posh 'lunch' instead of dinner - in the north of England we just have Breakfast, then Dinner, then Tea! And we also chant it at people who say 'lunch' to us! ;-)
Those aromatic pine cones sound pretty useful - I presume it has to be those particular ones though and I don't remember seeing any. Useful tip though... We have one bush someone round our lanes with apples growing wild on - I keep trying to remember to look for it but always forget...
I'm having lots of problems with the exodus of carers as I now need many of them for my 94 year old Mum and they keep leaving. All very worrying. They should definitely pay them more.
I am posh.
See Iron Maiden are playing Leeds and Manchester June 2023. If you like that sort of thing. Funnily enough I tend to like young bands for their energy and enthusiasm rather than most of the old timers I used to like when they were young. I also prefer finding new songs rather than old stuff I've heard umpteen times before.
That walk was fine in drizzle but it was heavy rain for a lot of it and I started to get chilled and tired at the end. No idea how rough sleepers survive even one winter in conditions like that as you never get dry living out on the streets.
Rough sleepers don't live long - I think most of them are dead by around 40. I'd be dead in one winter!
I like more energetic bands and music although I still listen to all my old stuff sometimes...
Don’t think I’ve ever been to Cambuslang! Looks good, that lovely park (and, yes, neither the Bitanics or Scotstoun Park are what they once were).
I've still got about one hundred vinyl LP's that I never listen to so I might get a record player again to hear them as they are fairly cheap to buy. New vinyl LP's are not.... but they are making a revival... just like spending real cash money in the shops due to the ongoing cost of living spiral and more frugal buying habits. One hundred original LP's of classic bands in my collection... I must be really posh :o)
Hi Anabel,
Childhood home of Midge Ure who went to London and made it big during the Blitz club era. One of the exceptional few (and maybe the only Scot) to have lasting success, and hits, in that select group of artists at that time as I think all the rest were English/Welsh and or Londoners already based there.
Yes, I noticed that about some of the Glasgow parks this year and I did hear various mutterings about not a full contingent of staff/and or cutbacks etc... Never mind, only another two decades of austerity cuts to enjoy after the last few weeks of UK market turmoil.
Your photos look enticing even in the rain.
I too have been thinking about rough sleepers, and wondering how on earth they survive being out all day and night in the cold, wet, winter weather. Those of us that have roofs over our heads should be grateful.
Nicola Sturgeon was spot on when she said that Liz Truss has "trashed the uk economy."
Hi Rosemary,
Although I'm not really political having watched the Conservatives operate since the days of Thatcher in the 1980s it's always seemed like they only exist to hammer the poor and reward the elite at every opportunity every time they get in. It's only now that it's hitting the middle classes via mortgages and pensions that there's an outcry, which is ironic. Having said that the current labour lot are dull and uninspiring or they would have been in by now so its just as well we have the SNP up here as an alternative even though I'm not mad keen on them either... or independence, which could take many years to prove worthwhile... years I don't have.
Interesting to note on TV some think she's (Liz Truss) still doing OK, a true Conservative, while others want Boris back. To me it's just like the Kremlin, its still the same bunch in charge, no matter the individual leader on the steering wheel...
I'm still waiting for tiny drops of moisture from the the 1980s 'trickle down effect' to reach post industrial towns in Scotland, although the European Community money did help many rural areas up here... which we no longer get thanks to Brexit... or EU care workers, EU farm workers, EU hospital staff... etc etc... It is what it is :o)
I've still got quite a few of my vinyl albums (including quite new ones) but sold off quite a few of them about 5 years ago before I had to move house - they made a reasonable amount of money - even the obscure stuff - they'd make more now though I think. I've still got my 80s hi-fi turntable which is a really good one with direct drive, S arm etc so, unless it breaks, I'll be sticking with that.
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