fourth edition

First, the obligatory “It is Spring!” photo. Of course I am convinced we will soon see a return to snowy gloom and doom, but I do enjoy being able to walk outside wearing less than five layers.
Secondly, a sock. My first pair were a bonafide success and so I think I need [...]

Wall behind the Hunterian Art Gallery and most likely part of the Glasgow University Campus
I have a real weakness for old bricks. They come in all sorts of colours depending upon where they were made; they can be handmade or marked with the manufacturer’s insignia; and they tell stories. We have too many brick photos [...]

For some odd reason I keep going back to the idea of a knitted dress. I found a machine-knitted dress in Monsoon (British clothes shop) which I absolutely loved (apart from the fibre make-up) and then I saw some jaw-dropping Briars and lengthened Dusty tunics. I just sit here in my cold flat and imagine [...]

One of my favourite places in Glasgow has to be the Botanic Garden. When I first moved here, we lived less than three minutes away by foot and I always made a point of walking through the Botanics whenever I was walking to or fro work. Nowadays we live slightly further afield and my journey [...]

Yes, it continues to be cold. The novelty of snow has long worn off. My sole source of weather-related amusement is the media who insist 60,000 people will die in the Big Freeze, the British Army is being set in and the beginning of food shortages lead to soaring prices. Yesterday night BBC News ran [...]

We are currently in Copenhagen for a truly “flying visit” before we head back to our normal life in Scotland. We spent our time here just walking around and I realised just how much I love Copenhagen (which is just as much as I abhor most Copenhageners). It is a beautiful, almost serene, city which [...]

We live in a typical Glasgow tenement building (red sandstone; built prior to 1919; quite similar to this photo). Most of the time I love living here: the buildings are delightfully late Victorian, we have a bay window which lets in an enormous amount of light, the rooms are huge, the fireplaces are Art Deco [...]

Borders has gone into administration here in the UK. Its Glasgow flagship store is covered in huge EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! STOCK LIQUIDATION!!! posters. It makes me very sad. I am an independent retailer sort of consumer, but Borders holds a special place in my heart. For years it was the only place I could find [...]

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in [...]

Today marked the first day that I’ve been outside in about ten days. The weather was lovely: crisp and on the cusp of winter. I walked through the arboretum down to the newly opened Waitrose where I hoped to find fresh baker’s yeast and buttermilk .. and maybe even a loaf of rye bread. I [...]