Revisits June 2, 2011

Interesting differences in pronunciation between Britain and America, even with brand names. For example:

Peugeot US is “Pew-SHOW” UK is “PUH-show”
Adidas US is “Uh-DEE-duss” UK is “AH-dee-dahs”

And, not a brand name, but still an interesting difference:

Controversy US is “CON-troh-ver-see” UK is “cahn-TRUH-ver-zee”

We have certainly mangled the English language we came across the ocean with.

We drove this morning up to Loch Lomond. The whole way, I couldn’t get the song out of my head: “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll get to Scotland before you. For me and my true love will never meet again, on the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.” This song was created by an anonymous hand, but I seem to recall a story of how it was written about a young man in prison aboard a ship in London who was saying to a friend that he himself had taken the low road (crime) and would die in prison so would never get back to his true love. How very sad.

Loch Lomond is 25 miles long with its width varying from 500 yards to 5 miles. It has thirty islands, wooded islets, and mountains rising steeply from the narrow neck of water at its northern shores.

I actually saw the city of Arden on the map, so now I don’t feel so bad about the address of our apartments in Arden, North Carolina. I had wanted the address to be in Asheville, but now that Arden is a Scottish name, I am fine with it. We went to Luss then retraced our steps and went to visit Dumbarton Castle.

This was the Rock that I had been trying to get a picture of from across the water. Today we saw it up close. First order of business was to buy a Historic Scotland membership & get our booklet stamped. Dumbarton Rock is about 335 million years old. It originated as a plug of cooled lava blocking a volcano. The castle was a defensive stronghold throughout the Middle Ages and stands 74 meters above the mud flats below. Dumbarton Rock was first mentioned in about 450 AD when St. Patrick wrote from Ireland to the ruler of Alt Clut to reprimand him for carrying off some of his new converts and selling them into slavery to the Picts. The castle was captured by the Vikings in 870. The Wallace Tower was built in the 1400s and the Portcullis Arch in the late 14th century. Some fierce-looking weaponry hanging on the walls here including some handguns used by the Jacobites at Culloden. Mary Queen of Scots stayed here 6 months before she sailed to France in 1548. The Germans bombed the castle in 1941. It was so interesting to walk up and down the stone stairways and look out at the gorgeous views.

We returned to our home and we next door to tour the Holmwood House. We bought membership in NTS first. No pictures allowed inside, sadly. This house was built in 1857 by Alexander “Greek” Thomson to look like a Grecian temple. The guide, Denise, showed us some of the restorations on the doors and other features. When the National Trust first came in to look over the property, they saw the painted white walls and thought they would just set it up as a walk through of a Victorian home. That was until one of the nuns who lived here and ran the school mentioned that there was a piece of the wallpaper that was missing in a hallway and that the original wall decorations could be seen. The Trust bought the house and has uncovered many of these beautiful features. The nuns had covered the Homer’s Iliad illustrations along the top of the walls with wallpaper, but had done it so that it could be removed later. They used this room as their altar and were probably offended by the nudes in the illustrations.

The guide explained that Mr. Couper, the original owner and a paper mill owner, used the dining room for meetings and served 7 course meals here. The food was brought in and put on the “altar” (as this was truly set up as a Greek Temple) as an offering for the gods. The thought was that if they wanted to eat it, they could become human and do so. If not, the food was free for the guests to partake. There were only 4 bedrooms in this big house. We toured the kitchen, 3 of the bedrooms, the dining room, and the sunny parlour with its lovely large windows. The guide showed us how easy it was to let air into the room by means of the easy-open sash. You could open them at the bottom and at the top as the windows recessed into the bottom area. The restoration is ongoing and I would love to return at a later date to see what have been done.

We have these gorgeous trees outside and one of them has a trunk that branches off into about 8 different trunks just as it comes out of the ground. One of these makes a sharp left and in effect creates a seat. I forgot to mention that the night before last, I was up past midnight and happened to look outside as I was pulling the drapes closed in the bedroom. THE SKY WAS STILL LIGHT!! And it was an eerie purplish color. And sitting in the crook of the lowest trunk of the tree appeared to be a person, a male person, older with not much hair. Well…….today we were touring the house and in the parlour was a bust of Alexander Thomson that looked EXACTLY like the “person” I saw sitting in the tree! Gave me the funniest feeling when I saw him.

Pictures from top: Two pictures from Dumbarton Castle; picture I wish I could have taken but was probably taken from a helicopter; fierce weaponry at Dumbarton Castle; Holmwood House parlour from the outside.

A Day for Elephants June 1, 2011

At the St. Enoch mall, there is the coolest toy store called Hamley’s. Outside was a HUGE stuffed elephant. Inside, the best Sylvanian family items I have ever seen including a windmill house! After a failed attempt to find the Scottish books I’m looking for at a bookstore across from the mall, we headed for Kelvingrove Museum. This is a treasure trove of fantastic finds from all over the world. We were greeted by Sir Roger the Elephant. He has been here since the museum opened over 100 years ago. After being in a traveling show, where his owner would take him for walks in the country, and the Glasgow Zoo, he came here. Hanging overhead was a real Spitfire airplane. Also in the museum is Salvador Dali’s painting, “Christ of St. John of the Cross.” It was returned to the museum recently following a loan to the High Museum in Atlanta! No gory details here. Dali wanted to emphasize the beauty of Christ and succeeded in combining science and religious belief. The perspective is from atop the cross looking down. Amazing.

There are many artifacts from history in Glasgow & Scotland in general. Holocaust related displays, swords, flowers, animals, fashon, glassware, pottery, birds. Oh, and I found out that my “tuxedo bird” is a magpie! Suits of armour, several “Madonna” paintings, Claude Monet’s “Vetheuil,” (absolutely gorgeous), Utrillo’s “Village Street Auvers-sur-Oise,” & (my favorite) a whole gallery of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work and of those inspired by him to create what is now known as Glasgow Art. I love Mackintosh’s work—he’s my favorite designer. The simple, clean lines so appeal to me. Mackintosh’s “The Wassail,” from 1900 was incredible. He wrote that he worked on it with his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. They are panels of oil painted gesso plaster on hessian and scrim, twine, glass beads, thread, mother-of-pearl, and tin leaf. I couldn’t believe how beautiful they were. Tea Rooms in Glasgow became famous, like the Ingram Street and Willow Tea Rooms, and plentiful because of his work. Miss Cranston, who ran the Willow Tea Rooms, used customized willow tableware that is exactly like what we have here at the Coach House. There were also Rembrandt’s and Titian’s paintings, 80 items on loan from the British Museum, & a Ceratosaur.

After lunch, we bought pizza as a backup for our dinner of salmon that may or may not turned out okay cooked in this little stove that we’re not entirely sure works correctly. Temps are in centigrade and the oven space is very small. We’ll see.
Saw the Charing Cross Mansions on the drive home, but honestly, much of the city it made up of buildings this elaborate. We may also have seen the St. Vincent’s Street Church, which was designed by Thomson. I was reading last night and came across this: An obituary of Alexander Thomson stated: “With Mr. Thomson, the designing of a building did not cease with the plasterwork and joinery. It extended to the coloured decoration, and this was as original, beautiful and characteristic as were the groupings or mouldings…” Same goes for Mackintosh. The rooms he created are exactly the way I would love for my house to be.

Speaking of churches, old churches are used for many different things over here. On Bute, an older church was being used as a furniture and carpet store. In Glasgow, we saw one that was now a self-storage facility. In Beaumaris, Wales, a black and white church had been converted into loft apartments.

We have decided that our GPS system, Tommie as we affectionately refer to her, spends her evenings drinking Scotch whisky. She has taken us on some incredibly circuitous routes lately. Yesterday, it took—and I am not kidding—1 hour and 40 minutes to get to a McDonald’s to use the internet. And the McDonald’s ended up being only 4 miles from where we started! Today she turned us on a narrow road full of huge potholes and running behind some apartments to get back to our place. I think we need to put a lock on the liquor.

Pictures from top: Dali’s Christ of St. John of the Cross; Charing Cross Mansions; Writing desk by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, inspired by kimonos; Mackintosh dining set; Mackintosh’s “The Wassail,” from 1900.