Coming home across the briny sea

After enjoying the beauty of the park, we made our way back to the flat - detouring to the Kelvin Walkway for some nautical adventures before relaxing at home.

'Eh, what's this?' you say, having seen this picture before. But this is one of Julia's, and it came out much clearer than mine. Also, I am reminded that we came up with Pirate names for ourselves. From left to right we have:
Traitor Curloin, Black Magpie & Cut-throat Blondie!

We saw this in a charity shop on the way home. We weren't quite brave enough to buy it & watch it!

A platform of sorts going down to one of the sluices leading to the old mill beside the Kelvin.

In the morning we had fashioned paper boats to sail, which we now took out & readied for their maiden voyage. 

Rachel and I adding flowers and such to decorate our boats.

Launching our boats!

Relaxing at the old mill.

Staking our claim.

Just resting a wee bit!  I will confess - I was tired! Lots of walking!

Rachel & I are very fond of this cat. We see it when we take our recycling out. I decided to take its picture. Why not?

After dinner (Fajitas! Yum!) we watched the FABULOUS 1995 version of Persuasion (I  refuse to acknowledge the 2007 version, as it was complete rubbish. And for those ladies who fancy Rupert Penry-Jones, even his blonde loveliness cannot compensate for how dreadful an adaptation it is!). It doesn't have pirates, but it has nautical attire - and they sail paper boats in it as well. 

So stealthily the pirate creeps

Once we had quit the building which houses Fossil Grove, we wandered around Victoria Park, which was a really stunning place. 

A white tree hidden among all the green. I think it was a sycamore.

A beautiful dell in the park.

This root melting over the rocks was fascinating!

The park had these little wooden horses. A man playing with his daughter on one of them.

Our cautious way we feel

Julia let me use some of her photos, which came out better than mine (or in this case, she took a picture of something that I didn't!) This is the ferry we took across the Clyde.

Our next destination was Fossil Grove (situated within Victoria Park) which was a good-ish walk away. And the grove closes at 4:00 every day. So, we threw caution to the winds (as pirates do) and hired (um, I mean commandeered!) a taxi that took us to the park, so we would make it to the grove before it closed.


Or really, we followed our treasure map, which told us to take '63 paces west along ye Dum Barton's way, head north fromm Olde Gibbs tavern thru the west land. Follow the sound of groaning and wailing. Speak in nigh but whispers lest ye be curs'd.'

A tree in the Park

One of the trees of Fossil Grove, enclosed within a building. It is  a credit to the people who found the grove when the park was being built that they did not destroy the grove, but kept it in situ. 

The floor of an ancient, fossilised forrest. 

A fallen tree trunk on the left

Another stump with roots reaching out.

Another (or the same?) fallen log.

Some information about the extinct trees.

An artists depiction of what the grove may have looked like.

It was a very intriguing place, and indeed, we did speak in whispers.

A handy board which explains the process of fossilisation.

A photo from the time the grove was discovered.

With cat-like tread

The Pirate Adventures continued!


The next directions on our map told us to 'Commandeer a skiff and traverse across ye dangerous waters of ye Clyde'. Well, we didn't exactly commandeer a skiff per se, but we did take the ferry across the river over to Govan, and on towards the church, where our map told us we should, 'Pay tribute to yon fallen comrades for luck'.


Aye, matey. And so we did.

Walking to the ferry

On the ferry

The tall ship and the Riverside museum from the ferry.

Fallen Comrades - we determined this by the skulls and cross-bones (I know, they're not really pirates buried here, but for the sake of our adventure we pretended).

Me investigating an intriguing, hollowed-out tree.

Do you see the crow in flight?

A city council boat doing clean-up work.

A lovely swan family.