Mainly stone and glass from Kelvingrove

The chap at the top of the page there and lady below, sit at either side of the Kelvingrove museum - they've been there over a hundred years now so how sensible of the lady to bring a book. It's easy to get carried away with the contents of a building and not to look at the building itself. Some of them are adorned with works of art themselves especially if the Victorians have had a hand in building it.

The next four items are all from the Italian art exhibition at Kelvinside that had a whole blog to itself not that long ago.

This delicate 16th century Venetian wine glass. Lovely though it may be,with those edges I think much spilling would have ensued if they were used.

This very oddly shaped glass, also 6th ventury Venice, looks as if it might be even more awkward to drink out of. There seems to be a bit of a resevoir at the bottom and when I visialise drinking out of this, I can see myself having to tip it up a long way to empty it. I can see a sudden rush of wine and a very wet face. Perhaps there is some student of fluid dynamics out there would like to take up this glass as a project.

This jug is dated 1714 and inscribes "Wylich" which could have been the name of the owner. The label does admit that it could have been a tankard.

During the Renaissence many vessels were carved from gemstones. Venetian glassblowers in the 16th century were making glass to resemble carved gemstone. The bowl below is an example of those.

This is a much later example, about 1890, which is a glass copy of an agate chalice in St Mark's Cathedral (I assume St Mark's in Venice)

The Sunflower - Garden Piece by Gilbert Ledlard in 1932.

I'm glad it's up here on the balcomy where it probably looks as good as it did when it was made 80 years ago - certainly not if it had found its way into a garden.

The next few pieces come from a cabinet of glass on the ground floor - the lighting in the cabinet was great for viewing but my camera didn't seem to like it so much and has give them all a yellow tinge. Still the pieces are well worth a look.

A jug made at the Jenkinson's Norton Park Glassworks in Edinburgh in 1876

A wine glass, also from Jenkinson's

The Russian dancer goblet is by Alison Geissler from Edinburgh and the decanter behind it is a piece of Caithness lead crystal engraved by Denis mann.

She is the Summer in the Cold Time between Christmas and Easter

A long title for this lovely plate - blown by David Kaplan of Galashiels and engraved by Alison Kinnaird of Midlothian in 1981. Mount by JF Coull.

David Kaplan again, this time with Annica Sandstrom in 1986

A glass balloon by Adrienne McStay of the Edinburgh College of Art

Syrinx by William McMillan. This was voted the best sculpture of 1925 by the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

 This was made in 1916 by Auguste Renoir and Richard Guino. Called simply Madame Renoir, it is Renoir's wife who had died the previous year.

And finally, this rather snazzy jacket which is to be found hiding anongst the Scottish paintings.

I must be moving along now - I've got an appointment with my tailor.

Flaming June

It's Thursday, or at least it will be when I post this, and the last day of my trip at work (all being well - we have some very disruptive variables when it comes to going home by helicopter from a boat anchored in the North Atlantic). It seems a good time to post the odds and ends from my May/June time off before I go and gather up some more stuff.

June has seen some of the country get some awful rain and I've heard somebody say it may be one of the wettest on record. I seem to have avoided the worst of it and still had a few good weather days right up to coming back to work.

But we start of at the end of May when it was still Summer with a trip round the botanics and these two ducks which became the first subjects of my camera for a couple of weeks.

A Heron on one of the Botanic's ponds.

A couple of shots from the winding path through their Japanese hillside

These blue poppies are the national flower of Bhutan

While out for a walk along the Water of Leith we spotted this heron looking for fish.

Got one!

We often emerge from the Water of Leith at the Modern Art Gallery. That day on their lawn they had two old aeroplane engines. It's Roger Hiorns, Untitled. If this isn't grabbing you as art then you can go for the technical side they're two EC-135c aircraft engines from a decomissioned military surveillance plane that was used in Afganistan. I think they look quite good sitting out on the grass.

Last year in this blog we went for an evening wander out by Ratho village to look at the cup and ring markings that were in the woods there. It was a very pleasant stroll indeed and we returned again a few weeks ago. They've placed a few benches at particularly picturesque points.

Zooming out a bit you get the distinctive panorama of Edinburgh - The hill you see is Arthur's Seat which is right in the middle of the city. It looks a lot further away than it feels to drive.

Just above the Harbour in Kirkcudbright is a wee grassy mound with some good leafy trees and a couple of cannon. It's accessed through this gateway (amongst other routes)

I must have walked through it hundreds of time but only a couple of weeks ago did I notice that there wa a face on it - suits a bunch of flowers doesn't it.

The boats were leaving for a few days fishing as I was sitting there - the river is tidal here and they can only get in and out of the harbour at certain times. I reckon that this is about as low in the tide as it could be to let a boat out.

I spotted a helicopter - a Lynx I think - while I was out for a stroll.

Glasgow has a Gallery of Modern Art too. This statue of the Duke of Wellington stands (or in the Duke's case, sits) outside it. The Duke usually wears a cone on his head but when we passed it the horse was wearing it. Quite dapper!

On the day of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee we were walking through Princes Street Garden where there was a concert in the ampitheatre by Bengali singer Momtaz Begum. The ampitheatre is known as the Ross Bandstand which is perhaps playing it down a little. Back to the point, there's a tune from Momtaz here.

Also in the gardens, a feathered friend.

I just caught the end of the medieval fair when I was in Kirkcudbright. Maybe it was the weather but it seemed a bit pared down from last years. This lot look more English civil war period - they are actually a division of the Sealed Knot, probably the country's biggest civil war reenactment group.

This mob are slightly more the right period.

Finishing off with a bang.

Back on the Water of Leith we spotted this little chap. That's him right in the middle of the picture.

He's a dipper. Lovely wee birds who inhabit our waterways.

And here he is living up to his name and having a dip.

This wern was spotted on a seat in the gardens at Kellie Castle

In one of the shelters that run along the edge of Princes Street Gardens, somebody had hung a black rectangle.

I think it's intended to be a frame.

Now there's a picture!