A Magical Mystery Tour. Part Two. Bellahouston Park.

                                                ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

In Bonnie Scotland there was a month long dry spell recently, throughout May of 2025 so I took advantage of this rare occurrence and was outdoors a lot.  I now have a backlog of posts. On the same sunny morning as the murals in the last post my final destination was Bellahouston Park. A south side green oasis within the City of Glasgow and one of my favourites places to visit since childhood. In past years during visits it usually had metal fences up, here above, and extensive drainage works going on... but now it's back to its best.

Apart from being a lovely park to walk through, with plenty of interesting features, it also has panoramic views.

Views all the more remarkable due to the fact that you are still deep within a large city here yet the view south and west is one of trees stretching to the far horizon with very few houses in sight. The Great Wood of Pollok. My chosen Kingdom. I grew up here. Many happy decades. A medieval view...so.... a perfect backdrop for a minor knight perhaps, on a lifelong quest.

Pollok Wood and The Brownside Braes. Another happy hunting ground for myself.... Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley, Charles Tennant (Industrialist), Charles Macintosh ( Waterproof Raincoat Pioneer), Catherine Cranston ( Tearoom Owner and C.R.M. patron)... and Jenny Lind (Swedish Opera Star... So I'm always in period company wandering through here with the shadows and echoes of past souls lingering. A great peaceful woodland now....... that often hides surprising secrets and past history.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Tennant

 

A honeysuckle hedge. In the 24c degree heat I could smell it long before I spotted it. Buttered Toast and Acacia honey is my favourite treat every Spring.  Each new month create....   a calendar of the senses.

Bellahouston's walled garden was looking fine as well thanks to hard working gardeners tending the various plant beds. Minions. Oompa- loompas.  I used to be one myself. In May it's tulip Time.

A blue contrast.

Sun lit white tulips.

Orange poppies.

A closer view.

Mature deciduous trees have always been my real love and passion, even more than mountains...  growing right beside and above me from my earliest memories.....so I'm only returning to my roots in old age... or my mycelium. Providing shelter from wind and rain in certain conditions..... welcome cool shade on this particular stunning hot afternoon.

Always a joy to come to this park.... especially in Spring. 40 different shades of green.... or grey....

C.R.M's House for an Art Lover. A side view.

Moss Heights in Cardonald District.

Clematis on a trellis.      The Queen of the Climbing Plants.

Looking towards the district where I grew up in the 1950s/ 1960s/ 1970s. Many times blessed and fortunate to come from here. It truly is........ The Beautiful South. 

I was looking across at this high point when I realized that I must have climbed it yet had no recollection of ever doing so. I've been up every hill in the wider area large or small.  Then I twigged that the woods would have obscured any view from it once up there. A new mission therefore... next time I would walk up there, marking the exact spot from the darker pine trees of the North Wood, so that I would be aware I was actually standing on a hill top.... even though obscured deep in the middle of the great forest. A new quest awaited me.

 Blissfully happy, I had lunch under a tree in the heart of my kingdom... my muse sitting on the scented grass beside me, making a daisy chain for her head. Let's call her Guinevere in this instance. One raspberry cream trifle, one strawberry tart, one ginger beer, one cheese and tomato sandwich each. With Alice.... in my Wonderland. I grew up.... and still live..... in this green and blue Heaven. A pure nature hedonist....but on a tight budget :o)

The end.