Sep 4, 2025
What a surprise as I sat drinking my coffee in B and Erin’s lovely kitchen
seen from Switzerland
seen from Malaysia
seen from Switzerland
seen from France
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Panama
seen from United States
seen from Colombia
seen from Guatemala
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Tunisia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Yemen
What a surprise as I sat drinking my coffee in B and Erin’s lovely kitchen
Last Saturday in Glasgow, a drizzly day. We headed to Pollok Country Park not far from our apartment to take in the Burrell Collection and were surprised also to see some highland cattle, who were not at all bothered by the rain. At the Burrell, a note on Chinese ceramics featuring male-then-female icon, Guanyin. I know it’s tiresome to keep calling attention to how different this is from what the current government of my country wants museums to do and say.
Ghost and ghoulish stories on a tour that took in allegedly haunted buildings (the hospital across from the necropolis, the Cathedral Hotel) and an assortment of graveyards as we headed into our last weekend in Glasgow.
Huzzah, back in Glasgow on Thursday, August 28! There’s food that does not come with a side of chips here
Double rainbow in Portpatrick
Another bright day in Portpatrick, so bright in fact that I got sunburned. We went to see the ruins of Dunskey Castle, which we reached via a walk through the nearby caravan park (what we would call a trailer park in the US, and we did in fact see a trailer-trash couple sound asleep in lawn chairs after what appeared to be a lunchtime drinks party). The path out to the castle was a little muddy and rocky, and Mike was feeling dizzy, as he frequently does. He slipped and fell once on the path to enter the castle (not, fortunately, over the cliff) and several more times as we navigated stairs without a railing along the Coastal Way down to the harbor on the return loop. The castle itself was intriguing but it was a rather harrowing day.
Snapped a photo of the huge quantities of berries along the footpath to the Portpatrick harbor and consulted with the woman at the post office/general store about whether they were indeed blackberries. She called them brambles but confirmed they were not only edible but tasty. I picked a liter on an un-Scottishly sunny afternoon.
The first day in Portpatrick involved a disappointing meal (more would follow) and scrounging the two provisions shops for something, anything we could imagine wanting to eat at home.
It was a clear sky overhead, though not clear enough to see Ireland from the deck behind our borrowed house. We saw some stars but no sign of the Milky Way. The clouds across the sea did enhance the sunset, though.