I arrived home late on Sunday evening after a good journey up the road and a remarkably calm ferry crossing given the huge storm on Saturday.
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| Sailing out of Ullapool and down Loch Broom to The Minch |
It had been a Good Week. The scans were clear and I'm continuing on the drugs trial. I've spent a couple of days getting back into my daily 'routine' (a silly term because I have few actual routines). I'm up at crack of dawn in the morning to take Gaz to the airport and his return to Italy.
Settling back in wasn't helped by the fact that the internet had, once again, disappeared in my absence. This time it was because the box on the telegraph pole had been destroyed in Saturday's storm. I was reinstated yesterday.
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| An Engineer up a telegraph pole. He's spent a lot of time mending my phoneline one way and another |
My last day in Glasgow included a visit to one of my favourite (and much blogged about) places: Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. A visit is never complete without seeing the Glasgow Boys exhibition.
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| Old Willie - The Village Worthy - Sir James Guthrie 1886 |
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| The Last of the Clan - Thomas Faed 1865 |
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| A Highland Funeral Sir James Guthrie 1882 The cottage in the picture still stands but is in a derelict state. It can be found alongside the Black Water river just up the lane from The Byre Inn public house in the village of Brig O'Turk, As can be seen women did not generally attend funerals at that time |
Naughty Campbells. I have always liked this painting but never understood it. I would have called enough but the nasty men had to poke the survivors with a stick. Not to worry, these things have to be considered in context. No East Enders or Telly in those days.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, which painting description have you got? I was originally going to use the picture of The Massacre of Glen Coe by James Hamilton but decided on The Last of the Clan instead and originally published the blog with the incorrect description but amended it very quickly.
DeleteWelcome back. Good to hear the scans were clear. I love the faces in those paintings, full of character.
ReplyDeleteThanks JayCee. The Glasgow Boys were good at characterful faces.
DeleteGlad to see you connected to the internet again - and good news about the scans! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, Monica, it's a pain when there is no internet. Some of us are so dependent upon it now.
DeleteGreat to hear about your clear scans. The painting The Last of the Campbells must have a story behind it, the scene is very sad.
ReplyDeleteTerra, it's a painting about the Highland Clearances which forced many to emigrate in search of a living, and shows the quayside of a Highland or island village, with a group of figures watching the departure of an emigrant ship for the colonies.
DeleteGood to read your scans are clear.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful paintings
Thanks, Maywyn.
DeleteYou shared my favourite, A Highland Funeral. I was blown away when I saw the Glasgow Boys at Kelvin Grove when I visited in March. Next time I visit Glasgow I will be calling in to see them again. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad, Rachel, that you enjoyed them. I never go without trying to be there for the daily organ recital and seeing The Glasgow Boys. Some of the sculptures have also captured my heart over the years too.
DeleteGood news all round :)
ReplyDeleteLovely photos and impressive pictures.
I remember my Grandfather’s funeral in Pitlochry. He was a mason and men in black arrived at the house in droves. Then my mother and I were left at home with my Grandmother while the men all went to the grave. No church service. I was 8 at the time and it was the strangest day. Your picture took me right back there!
Fi, I think the men only at the grave may stem from the fact that the coffin had to be carried to the cemetery and that was definitely a job for the men as it might need to be carried a mile or two. On Lewis the practice of "The Lift" as it is called remains and all the men present at the funeral carry the coffin to the hearse. I have been to funerals where there are so many men there that roads have been closed and The Lift has been many hundreds of yards. However women do go to the graveside now.
DeleteThat is good news on the medical front! I do love to view paintings, If the cottage bus still there, are able to get a photo of it? Just wondering. Glad you got your internet back. How did you make it without me?
ReplyDeleteKay, I assume that it's still possible to photograph it. I was walking with friends at Brig O' Turk last summer but had no idea about the cottage. I'll enquire next time I'm there.
DeleteKay, how did I make it without you? I lay back and thought of Eastbourne!
DeleteSome pretty interesting stories about people.
ReplyDeleteYes, Red, I wonder if they considered them interesting at the time.
DeleteOh, to visit Scotland. In 2020 we are heading to Ireland. Maybe we can make across the water.
ReplyDeleteHello Susan. I'm sure that if it's to be you'll find a way.
DeleteOld Willie is a beautifully crafted portrait; oh to have such skill.
ReplyDeleteCro, you'll be able to appreciate the skill more that I can. I can simply look at it and admire and wonder and enjoy.
DeleteGreat news about your scans, and good to know you have internet access again.
ReplyDeleteI've returned from (yet another) hiking holiday with O.K.; we had little to no internet connection there which means a pile of photos and handwritten diary entries is now waiting to be converted to blog posts.
Thanks, Meike. Good to see you back again. I hope that you are well refreshed mentally and physically.
DeleteInteresting old paintings.
ReplyDeleteThe best news of all is your news. So glad for you, Graham. Take care. :)
Thank you. Lee. I find that I develop a love, if not an understanding, of certain paintings and return to them time and time again.
DeleteI love learning about clan history, mine is quite extensive my grandmother was part Dunlop and part Mackintosh.
ReplyDeleteAmy, it's a fascinating area of interest and study. It's also, I have discovered, a very complicated one.
DeleteI like "A Highland Funeral". It looks a bitter day in more ways than one.
ReplyDeleteAye, YP, I agree with you absolutely: bitter and intensely sad because it would appear from the size of the coffin that it's a child.
DeleteSo glad to hear all is well with you (including the internet connection, can't imagine you without it). I find The Last of the Clan is hauntingly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pauline and apologies for the late response.
DeleteOld Willie looks like a wise person. The reason women were not supposed to attend funerals in the 19th century was that their constitutions were not supposed to be up to it, and so they might let the side down by crying. I wonder when that changed.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, Jenny, that surprises me in relation to Highland Women. These are the women who carried their men out to the fishing boats on their backs so that they would at least start off their day with dry feet. I've rarely come across an Island woman who wasn't mentally tougher than her man. Perhaps therein lies the dichotomy. The men were certainly chauvinist in the extreme.
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