Glasgow City Chambers

This past week, Rachel's American friend Julia visited us. Rachel met her in Aberdeen a couple years back, when Julia was on a semester abroad in Aberdeen. She was a really lovely girl and it was very nice getting to know her.
So, call me stupid, but I hadn't really realised till recently that one can get a free tour through the city chambers (George square, across the street from the 1st World War monument). So, Rachel and I thought it might be a nice place to take Julia.

In the entrance halls and foyer

A sign in Gaelic! Yay!

The fancy marble staircase

A lion guarding the floor above, which includes the Lord Provosts office (which is currently a woman). It's said to be good luck to rub his nose - so of course we all did! 

The door of the Lord Provosts office

Julia sitting in the Lord Provosts chair

Rachel doing likewise, with a serious expression!

And me!

A closeup of the bird, the tree, the fish and the bell

A view of George Square

Beautiful wallpaper!

St Mungo

St Mungo

Glasgow fair, 15th (?) century as imagined by the artist

another view of the Mungo panel

Brass chandeliers! Imagine polishing THOSE!

a panel commemorating ship building in Glasgow

Embossed leather wallpaper

After the city chambers, we went along the Kelvin Walkway. It was very lovely!

My new favourite tree along the Kelvin walkway.

Just a few things around Glasgow

There are, I suppose, quite a few ways of walking into the city centre from the west end. In days of yore I used to end up on Sauchiehall Street, or maybe St Vincent Street. But these days I have discovered my favourite way of walking into the city: this is via Renfrew Street (did I post the Beethoven picture earlier in my blog? That was on Renfrew St). It's easy, from where I live, to take Woodlands Road, where one can either wait ages for the lights to change, and criss-cross your way across the motorway, or you can go on the footbridge which avoids all the traffic and safely deposits you on Renfrew Street. I of course, prefer the latter. 

One of my favourite sights on Renfrew St - the window in an antique store.

Almost to Great Western Road - the Kelvin

The old (derelict) railroad station.

The bridge on Great Western Road from below - near the old train station

This one is for Heather. She got me started on a Medieval Mystery series set in Glasgow (before I ever moved here!) and there's a rascally character in it whose last name is Doig. I always thought it was an odd name, so I was delighted the first time I saw one of these busses about town. 

Madeleine Smith house

A photograph of Madeleine Smith

Recently I happened upon a most interesting story. In Glasgow, in 1857, a young girl named Madeleine Smith was tried for murder. And this is the story: Her father was a well-to-do architect, and had hired Pierre Emile L'Angelier (a fellow from the Channel Islands) as his apprentice. In 1855, Madeleine and Pierre began a clandestine love affair, right under the noses of her parents. It wasn't until a suitable fellow proposed to her in 1857 that Madeleine broke off her connection to L'Angelier. Despite the fact that it was established that she had purchased arsenic (and L'Angelier died of arsenic poison), and despite the vast amount of love letters found among his effects, Madeleine was not convicted of the crime. It was a very odd case of 'not proven' and she was let go.

One of the courtroom drawings of Madeleine

A key element in the trial was the chronology of Madeleine's letters to L'Angelier. This was established not from the letters themselves, which were undated, but by the post-marks.

She left Scotland, changed her name, and ended up marrying a George Wardle, a friend and associate of the Pre-Raphaelite William Morris.

Having found out that the house was still standing, I went to have a look at it yesterday.

The front door of the house.

No. 7 Blythswood Square

A view of the square opposite the house.

Walking down the Road

Before I left New York, our friend Todd Messinger did a photo-shoot for us - of Heather, Katie and myself. One of the pictures from the shoot shows us walking down Water Street towards the derelict mill at the corner of Water Street and Route 41.

When Alice (Rachel's younger sister) emailed me some recent pictures of herself and her mother, one of them reminded me of the picture of the three of us, and so I asked her if I could use it in a post (she said yes).

There seems to be something picturesque and contemplative about the images of women walking down the road together - connected, yet separate. We will all go our separate ways (Heather, Katie, Alice, Shonaidh and myself) yet we stay connected, linked together through our relationship as sisters, daughters and friends. Oh, dear. This does sound cheesy.

My apologies.

Heather, Katie and myself.

Shonaidh and Alice.

To welcome in the May!

I confess that on the 1st of May, I did not go a-maying. I worked in the morning, so I postponed it till the 2nd of May (I felt justified, after all, the Cornish don't go Maying until the 2nd). In any case, this year Rachel came along with me, which was really nice. We walked around the Botanic Gardens, smelled the blossoms, sat and talked for a while, and I even sang a snatch of a May-day song. It was really lovely. It wasn't as warm as it was last year, but it was a beautiful morning.

Another of those spring figures in the trees - this time a bird!

Rachel smelling the blossoms

Smelling the blossoms

Monkey-puzzle tree!

A squirrel in the weeping willow

A blackbird, searching for worms.

Good-bye to Elder Lee

Elder Lee, one of the Chinese Elders, leaves this week. Even though he is a Chinese Chinese Elder, he spoke Cantonese and had to learn Mandarin to come to this mission. Before going away, he cooked food for all of us in the FHE group.

Elder Lee busy in the kitchen!

Elder Lee with Elder & Sister Hicks

Trisha (from Edinburgh) make Elder Lee a going-away cake.

That's not me doing the fingers behind Han, that's the other Elder standing beside me! 

Traveling North

Ever so often Aberdeen puts together a YSA ward, as they call it - where any YSA that are around are invited to come up and spend a day together, and go to church together, and there is food afterwards. As Rachel lived in Aberdeen for a time, she likes to go up to these, and has gone to several in the past. This time, I went with her (this was on the 22nd of April). We took the train up - oh, I *do* love traveling by train!

Before going to the church, we met up with Rachel's good friend and former flat-mate Lauma, from Latvia. She had baked Rachel a gorgeous cake - a late birthday present for her. 

It was an enjoyable day - I had a headache all the while, though, which took away some of the enjoyment I might have had. 

Lauma & Rachel - and the lovely cake!

The man on the train punched our tickets with a darling train-shaped stamp!

In Aberdeen, with our friend Heather Currie.