Another month, another list of words. This month we have been to Alloa in Scotland to stay with our family there. I thought I would try and get most of my pictures from our Scottish break. So here goes.
Mark - down
Our son and his wife have been 'adopted' by a neighbour who loves to go to the local supermarket just down the road and get the end of day bargains. He does not like the fruit and vegetables on offer so always takes them for our family. You cannot believe the mark downs. Things we regard as treats like mangoes and avocados are just a few pence each. That pile of vegetables below (organic potatoes - 10p; Mango - 5p; 2 packs of avocados - 9p each and a pawpaw (papaya) - 5p) that we were given to bring home cost just 38p. That would not buy one item!!
Straw
One evening, on our way to give the dogs a swim in the nearby Black Devon River we parked by this field of straw coloured wheat just waiting to be harvested. We did see a lot of straw bales waiting to be collected in fields as we drove along but never in places where we could stop for me to take a photograph.
Arm
One of the highlights of our visit was going to see the Falkirk Wheel. For those who do not know about this amazing structure this boat lift was built to link two canals to save the barges using 11 locks as they had done previously and connect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal and was part of the Millennium Link project. Today it is a tourist attraction. People sit in the red gondolas and then the large arms slowly rotate till the gondola is up at the top and then the gondola is able to move along the upper canal. Amazing. The whole operation takes 4 minutes.
The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world . (Details thanks to Google).
An excellent YouTube video explaining the whole fascinating operation can been seen HERE.
Ducks
While in the Visitors Centre at the Wheel I was busy taking photographs such as this beautifully made wolf out of wire. I completely forgot about needing a picture of ducks. It was only when I got home I remembered and kicking myself I realised I had seen some in a yellow bath. Then when looking at my photographs, there in the corner of the 'wolf picture' was the bath full of ducks. The bath represents the moment when Archimedes is supposed to have realised his body displaced water in the bath and leapt out shouting 'Eureka'. (Not sure why the ducks are silver).
Window
Below is a rather faded picture of Town House in the main street of Hailsham, an East Sussex town where my mother lived for many years. It was a lovely old house with a Granary, large garden with an orchard and a lawn tennis court. Sadly it now has been converted to offices, and the tennis court has been replaced by a modern dental surgery.
What fascinated me when I first visited my mother's friends there were the bricked up windows. I was told it was to do with the Window Tax, something I remembered from history lessons many years ago. On looking it up I see it was done during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax some houses from that period can been seen to have bricked up window spaces.
I have just looked on Google Maps and see the windows have been replaced and the whole house has been very sympathetically done up. Looking at it again brought back memories of coffee and cake round the huge kitchen table and lovely meals in the dining room.
My Own Choice
During am earlier visit to Scotland we went to see The Helix, a large water park honouring the horses as the power houses of the early industrial revolution, pulling the barges along the Forth and Clyde canal.
The Kelpies were modelled on two one and a half tonne Clydesdale horses that Andy Scott, the artist, chose as his models. Their names were Duke and Baron. I mentioned them in my photo hunt post at the end of August 2018.
While at the Visitor's Centre at the Wheel we discovered that no animals had been hurt in the making of the Kelpies!! I was so relieved to find that out.
This picture was on tea towels and coasters for sale in the shop!!!
Now off to see what everyone else has done with the list of words.
