Revisiting Kelvingrove

Reliving our visit to Kelvingrove last year. I can hardly believe it's been a whole year since I was there! Manbacon and I were toying with the idea of moving to Glasgow, mainly due to that gorgeous Georgian (I think) flat in Shallow Grave, which we watched again recently. I think that flat is probably as important a character as the three friends. 

For the eagle-eyed readers out there - yes, that is a bottle of Famous Grouse in the bottom left corner of the diorama. Because...what else would you display under a couple of rutting stags? 

Lights in Glasgow

From the Ibis Hotel, from the Christmas carnival, from Ingram Street, from the Hunterian Museum. 

From December 2011. 

The Willow Tea Rooms

I am aching to go on holiday again. Nothing big or fancy or far-flung, just a short two day break from real life. Unfortunately, real life is rather pressing at the moment (isn't it always). In the absence of an actual break, I decided to relive my recent holidays by taking a trip through my photos. It reminded me that I had yet to post these images from our visit to both Willow Tea Rooms while in Glasgow.  

We arrived in Glasgow just before lunchtime, and discovered that the Willow in Sauchiehall Street was just a short stroll from our hotel, so headed there to fill up and warm up. 

The holiday ended just as it begun, with a visit to the Willow Tea Rooms, this time at Buchanan Street. If you're ever there, I suggest you try for a table in the blue-tinged Chinese Room, so much more atmospheric!

Voltaire and Rousseau

It's no secret that I love a good messy bookshop. In fact, I try to seek out at least one whenever I'm on holiday. I found out about Voltaire and Rousseau just before my trip to Glasgow last December, and made it a point to visit it while I was in the city.

Behind that rather unassuming exterior on Otago Lane lies a treasure trove - piles upon upon upon shelves upon boxes of boxes. It's a minimalist's worst nightmare. It was my idea of heaven. 

 

 

 

It may not seem immediately obvious, but the shop is actually divided into several sections. The front room is the £1 section - every single book there costs £1. It's just a matter of finding something that takes your fancy. I found too many, and ended up spending more time culling my selection than I spent selecting them in the first place. 

The inner room is roughly split into sections such as Drama, Music, Cook Books, Military History and others that I can't recall. Those are very vague delineations though - the actual sorting system seemed to be: find a pile which doesn't look too precarious, place book on top, make sure it doesn't slip off, walk away. Repeat. The old men who ran the place practised this system very conscientiously while I was there. It's the exact same sorting system I use at home.

There's also supposed to be a shop cat somewhere in there, but I couldn't find him. Him? I felt the cat was a him, after all, everyone else working there was a 'him' too. We ended up leaving with only about 30 books. Only 30? Well, I could easily have bought more - trust me, there were some beautiful books in there - but my purse and Manbacon's arms could only stretch so far. 

Glasgow Necropolis

On the last day of our trip to Glasgow last December (I know, I know, so long ago!), we had a few hours before catching our train back to London, so decided to go for a walk to Glasgow Necropolis.

Fresh snow had fallen the night before, blanketing the cemetery in a carpet of white. It made a lovely contrast against the dark Victorian gravestones and monuments. The Necropolis hadn't been on my list of places to visit, but I'm glad we went. The short, quiet stroll along the lonely graves turned out to be one of my favourite moments in Glasgow. 

True Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some Sewing Inspiration

There are heaps of photos of my recent trip to Glasgow to sort through, so I thought I would put up some pictures of pretty dresses first. These were all taken in the massive Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Manbacon and I spent hours there, and we didn't even see everything. It was fantastic, but exhausting. I felt rather 'museumed-out' at the end of our visit. Anyway, enjoy the dresses!