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If anyone is still puzzled why I loved spending my childhood and young adult years in Pollok and Nitshill this photo of misty ridges, short grass meadows and broad leaved woodlands should provide the biggest clue. I've had urban walks all over Glasgow but very few have the sheer variety and feel of the wild as here. This view, believe it or not, is taken from the middle of a large city, looking south west across it, from Bellahouston Park in fact, yet all you can see here is the forest and various open ridges I grew up within. No wonder then when I read the Lord of the Rings at 13 it made a huge impression on me as that's a book about small settled communities in the semi mythical medieval past surrounded by deep mysterious forests, pleasant farmlands, high mountains, caves and rivers. Forget Dwarfs, Elfs and Goblins. It's a book primarily about different ancient peoples, customs, and landscapes.... a deep love affair with the outdoors... a grail quest..... and sheer imagination........... and looking at this misty morning view...in October 2022.... I would be happy to do it all over again... from the beginning. Not the book... my life here.
Mosspark and the Brownside Braes. I've also walked in several flat urban districts over the last few years where I've been fairly bored... no thoughts of wonder, distance views, or mystery at all...Merrylee, Newlands and Cathcart spring to mind. Not a usual occurrence for me in any city. I never even posted those days out despite taking enough photographs for a blog walk. Uninspired. Well heeled and perfectly pleasant districts to live in they may be but they never change and nothing much happens there since the day they were built in the 1900 to-1940s, no distance views available of real life 'sunlit uplands' either to enrich the soul or mind as that's the only version most ordinary folk will get.....and to sustain that comfortable middle class lifestyle a parental expectation perhaps of a 40 to 50 year professional career that's possibly well paid but equally dull in large parts unless something remarkably different occurs. (or so I thought walking round them.) Maybe that's unfair and not the case at all but that was my general intuitive impression looking around, flat street by flat street. By contrast rough areas do change, all the time...from good to bad then flattened altogether....., and they can be unpredictable and exciting- depressing, dangerous, or frustrating: in constant flux year by year... folk move in/out/ scattered about, then travel back years later to see it completely transformed and then reminisce about how good the old one was. But looking at this view of Mosspark and the Brownside Braes, above, in 2022, the only thing I'd change is my age.... to go back to childhood again... and do the exact same things that gave me endless pleasure the first time around. Every weekend to have a brand new adventure outdoors, to see what's over that ridge, wonder about the view from that highest hill in the distance, what secrets lie within that far off wood? If there's only a dozen or so truly original stories in the world then 'The grail quest' and 'The girl in the tower' are the ones that's motivated me the most throughout my life. It doesn't really matter if you find what you are looking for as it's the search itself that gives you the most pleasure. A sense of purpose and a passion easily identifiable with 'American Pickers' where folk that collect junk sell a few items now and again then immediately hunt for some more to replace them with any money they get because it's the search that's the real golden ticket. Not the money itself.
The tower and the raven. Seeing as how I've never had much money anyway and was never likely to acquire any in meaningful substantial amounts that would change my life, given my impoverished background and lack of any talent/intelligence I had already won a golden ticket growing up right here. From a very early age fantasy tales made perfect sense to me. There might well be a girl in this tower if I arrived there (there was but no visible spark ignited between us) and what secrets did lie along that wooded ridge in the distance?..... or who lived in that far off house on the horizon? I know the answers to these questions now of course but I'd wipe everything clean and start again, no problem, to get back to that original blank map to fill in gradually, piece by hard won piece. Maybe that's the real purpose of our existence. To fill in the blanks on the map. True, folk from a more privileged background may have the funds to travel to more exotic places and afford better and bigger luxuries but looking back now my greatest gift then was a lack of expectations and drive from my parents as to a future career or being clever enough at school to be deemed remarkable in any way. I was ordinary... and so saved myself from a life of striving to achieve something in a work related way... which is a grail quest in itself of course... but not for me. I therefore had a precious freedom leaving me open to create my own destiny. And luckily, one that could be achieved at bargain prices given a few unavoidable compromises.
A beautiful sunny autumn day in Bellahouston Park so I invited Anne along.
Mellow yellow. A few occasional song titles intruding in our grace of passage through these noble lands.
Garden in the City. Queens Park. Glasgow.... a photograph inspired by a Melanie Safka song and LP album cover of Central Park I still have from the early 1970s in my vinyl collection. Folk singer Joan Baez and Melanie being two early 1960s/ 1970s artists I liked around 12/ 13 years of age which predated the Velvet Underground, Bolan, Roxy Music, Curved Air and Bowie phase as a more subversive mid 1970s art rock, long haired, hormone driven teenager developed by the time I went to the nearby Langside College. Especially songs like Silver Dagger, The Silkie (of Sule Skerry) and Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe, which was my first real introduction to the mysterious wonder and power contained in traditional story telling ballads. Gratefully saving me, incidentally, from 'Donald where's your Trousers?' type folk music ubiquitous at that time on Scottish Television programmes watched by my different generation parents with its bagpipes, heather and haggis stereotype still lapped up by tourists today. It was a scratch and sniff album cover supposedly rendered to give you a scent of the flowers in New York City park lands. Still works 50 years later.... though it never really smelled of flowers, only cheap perfume of some vague description. But hey! Still working faintly half a century later! Come on! Might outlast Melanie herself at this rate! ( in one of those strange coincidences that nevertheless frequently occur I dug out that album to look at, (and scratch and sniff out of curiosity,) then later on just happened to be watching the first episode of 'The English' with Emily Blunt which faded out with Melanie's 'Some say (I got devil)' after not thinking about her or hearing her music on TV or radio for several decades.) Spooky stuff....happens all the time though.
Barclays Bank complex from Queens Park. Orange and dark green towers are part of it as well.
M8 Motorway and Scottish Power building from Queen's Park.
One of the reasons we included Queen's Park in our day out was for the city views from the flagpole high point. The closest Glasgow can get to Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat viewpoint, as in... seeing most of the city spread out below from an elevated hillside. As a compensation for not having castles, cobbled streets, or volcanoes within it's city limits Glasgow does have dozens of smaller hills open to public access, many of them parks. University of Glasgow here.
City Centre district around George Square. City Chambers visible ( stone spire on right) Yellow fins in middle denote new building constructed recently.
Glasgow's financial district.
Park circus towers and new building going up. It's been a while, pre pandemic maybe, since either of us has visited Queen's Park.
Different view of it.
Part of Glasgow's east end from the Royal Infirmary to St Joesph's Tower where an old folk's home run by nun's and a convent once stood, continuing this medieval theme (French order: The little sisters of the poor) I've been up that tower as well ( I get around I do) but not to rescue anyone. Notably fewer small wooded hills and far less trees overall in this eastern half of the city. The hi rise flats of Royston behind and other tower block clusters providing the best view points although access can often be problematic.
Close up view of Glasgow's financial district. Tightly packed.
As a contrast looking in the other direction. Shawlands Cross and Pollok. The beautiful south.
Langside halls. Shawlands Cross. Amazingly a building moved from Glasgow's city centre district out to here. To Victorian drive and ambition few things were impossible. Started out as The National Bank of Scotland in Queen Street but ended up here. Hard to believe. And Anne didn't :o) Remarkable story and photos in link below. See. Told you :o)
https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/glasgows-historic-langside-halls-moved-22447373
We did not intend doing a Shawlands mural trail but just stumbled across a few down a nearby cul de sac. An abstract one here. A painter painting. Early selfie I presume.
Orangutan.
Wall mural. All found down a lane beside Queen's Park entrance near Shawlands Cross. Public toilets building across the road also found here in the rosy tinted past but now converted into a cafe/coffee/ restaurant building, presumably holding toilets within just for customers which kind of sums up what's happening to most public services UK wide. Either closed completely or turned into some kind of private enterprise where you have to pay for what used to be free. Like local swimming baths that closed decades ago. I would go swimming now or participate in a lot of other things if they hadn't all disappeared during the last 20 years and with another 20 years of continuing austerity to come, due to 'the big lie' of a 60 billion financial black hole, (which may or may not exist according to how you count it up. Lie, dammed lies, and statistics!) it's happy times ahead, as usual, for the long suffering general population.
The colours of autumn in October 2022.
'Elephant in the room' Bellahouston Park.
Japanese red maple. House for an art lover.
A gathering of females. House for an art lover.
Red theme at Bellahouston Park.
Late October sunshine in Bellahouston Park. 2022.
A battered old knight happiest in a broad leaved wood. Having grown up there. Exploring. A girl in a far off tower to reach... to give some purpose to a quest..... after many valleys and ridges and high mountains to cross. My own life story perhaps? The glorious journey. And like any highly addictive sense of purpose you never want it to end ....only old age and death gets in the way of it. Born again I'd do the exact same thing again.
8 comments:
I'm pretty sure the 60bn black hole does exist - we've always been in, and are getting deeper into, huge debt as a country.
I wouldn't go back to my schooldays - while I liked primary school I didn't like secondary school and was glad to leave. I'd go back to my 30s/40s when I was at my fittest and had started going to the hills again.
Bloody hell Carol, that's quick, I'm still writing an ending to this post! Nope, I've read a number of articles now that the financial black hole is a favourite Conservative myth from the usual austerity playbook, each page and chapter in it designed to funnel money from the base to the top of the pyramid... where it rightly belongs. We've been under austerity measures for the last 40 years and things have not improved much for the masses. The UK can print it's own money. Implementing austerity during recessions just makes the country poorer, the rich richer, and Brexit didn't help.
You are right. I'd skip the secondary school days and keep the rest of it as I don't remember learning anything worthwhile at secondary school that came in handy later on in life other than steering clear of obvious nutters and bad guys.
At first I thought that the elephant was real, but then I clicked onto your image and realised it was faux.
One regret I have is that I never got to visit the house for an art lover when we lived in Glasgow.
Brexit was the start of the great decline and thereafter we have continued falling off the cliff.
Ah, nostalgia! Great pictures, as usual. And I agree with you about the black hole.
Hi Rosemary. It's not a fox it's an elephant :o) Blends in really well with the trees from certain angles, just like a real one would do.
Yup. Apart from our energy crisis just getting enough staff to work in certain low paid or hard graft industries is potentially a bigger problem than covid 19 and lock downs.
Hi Anabel, It wouldn't bother me to the same extent except for all the blatant lies and spin that some folk actually believe. 'We're all in this together.' (depends who we are I suppose) 'We are going to level up' (Again, that depends on who we are. Probably ex PM's like Boris who can rake in 10 to 20 million per year giving motivational speeches apparently.One good reason to take the job.) 'We are a party for the people, a listening party etc etc.
Mind you folk down south keep voting them in.
Such is life.
Not sure about everywhere else but, the reason they're struggling to get the hospitality places filled in places in the Lakes is because the low-paid people who need to do the jobs have been priced out of the area by the tourists buying up all the properties and Air BnBing them and suchlike. So they have to commute in and, when they do, they have no chance of parking anywhere except at around £8 per day which, on low wages, you can't afford. The reason I've moved onto nights is to get around the parking chaos and all the mega multitudes of tourists blocking the place up. I heartily wish I could get a local job doing what I do!
Yes, I watched a programme recently about that and Airbnb affecting other tourist destination hot spots Like the Scottish Highlands and islands where 40 percent of some villages are just used for holiday homes or that purpose where local young folk are priced out and local shops, schools, etc shut due to lack of local customers actually shopping and living there. Read recently that fruit pickers are getting planes from the other side of the world(Indonesia) to pick but due to the UK's short autumn harvest season (one or two months) they are barely making enough to break even once they get here due to the distance.
Never mind. 8 billion people living in the world reached this year. That's bound to help.
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