Middleton Hall Restorations (house and garden), Nature Trails, Bird Watching

.Day 21. A full and interesting day that was a wonderful combination of exploring Middleton Hall, its restorations and its colorful, heated walled garden with its beds and paths laid out in a union jack shape, Middleton Pool and its many birds, tea breaks, and later in the day we drove a short distance to Kingsbury Water Park to observe the water birds there. Very exciting! Middleton Hall has had an interesting history with its first building dating to the 13th century. Elizabeth I was a visitor there in 1575. Gertrude Jekyll, famous gardener, visited the garden many times. The buildings were in total disrepair and threatened to be torn down when a trust was formed in 1977 and committed themselves to restoring the buildings and gardens. In both places we walked on nature trails that ran along lakes and canals. We were able to observe a variety of birds on small islands scattered here and there on the lakes, some were nesting, the odd heron was seen across the lake in a tree and on the ground, a grebe floated by us, as did a variety of ducks and coots, and many more. There was so much to see I had a difficult time dragging myself away. When a light rain began to fall, our legs tired from all the walking and dinner time fast approaching, we dragged ourselves away and headed home. 'Twas a super day for sure! Shortly after one of Valerie's yummy dinners, and just about as I settled down in the conservatory to enjoy the garden and write my blog, I glanced up at the sky to see the most beautiful and vividly-colored rainbow. Outdoors I rushed to photograph it. As is often the case when photographing rainbows I couldn't get the full sweep of it in nor could I quite capture its true beauty either from the garden or the front of the house. The sky was beautiful where ever we gazed and assured us of a good day tomorrow...'pink sky at night, a sailor's delight'...we trust that will be true. 

Charles Rennie Mackintosh...A Museum Collection/A Church/A School of Art/A Tearoom

Day #19, June 15. With the list of things to see and do in tow we started out soon after the breakfast buffet here at the hotel. It was going to be a Charles Rennie Mackintosh Day. The starting point was the  Kelvingrove Art Museum with the rooms devoted to Rennie Mackintosh art first on my agenda. These rooms were no disappointment at all. As I was headed for the Mackintosh exhibit I noticed another room devoted to the 'Glasgow Boys'. I made a mental note to explore those rooms next. There I found a good assortment of paintings I especially liked and photographed a few. 

We then drove across town for a tour of  Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art which we thought was reopened after the serious fire that destroyed so much of it a couple years ago. However, we quickly learned it had a lot of renovating before it could open. A disappointment! We had to satisfy ourselves with a look round the temporary museum. The combination of text and artifacts from the inside of the GSA helped us to imagine some of what we were missing by not actually getting inside. 

In keeping with our theme for the day, Rennie Mackintosh and his art work, we next visited the only church (Queens Cross) he designed, both the exterior and interior. At one time the church was threatened to be torn down, but it was saved and now houses a Mackintosh center. 

By then it was 2:30 and we were more than ready for some sustenance. Tea and scone served with clotted cream and jam sounded perfect. The top choice for a tea break was the Mackintosh-designed Willow Tea Rooms. The icing on the cake for our two days of seeing Mackintosh design. A super ending indeed! 

Glasgow and Some Grand Art Collections

Off this morning right after a full and yummy English breakfast at The Arches to take a peek at the Robert Burns Museum and his thatched cottage in the village of Galloway, his birthplace. But since we were too early for opening times we only wandered into the village to see the cottage. 

From there we headed to Glasgow, a HUGE city, the second largest in Britain...and not an easy city to navigate or drive in. After lots of wrong turns we finally arrived at the museum that houses The Burrell Collection, a unique collection of some 8,000 objects was given to the city by Sir William Burrell in 1944. We enjoyed a good tour of his collection with objects from late medieval and early Renaissance Europe to important examples of Chinese and Islamic art, French paintings and Ancient civilizations.There are also works by major artists including Rodin, Degas and Cezanne. While in Glasgow we're planning to see as many Charles Rennie Mackintosh sites as it's possible to fit in. After lunch in the cafe we headed out in the direction of our first choice on the list, the Mackintosh House at the Hunterian Art Gallery. It was a Sunday with some special fair going on with hundreds of people milling about and enjoying lots of special activities that were going on in the Kelvingrove Park area and in and around Glasgow University. Absolutely NO parking places were visible! Finally Bill and Malcolm dropped us off at the museum while they drove off to search for a parking spot. When we arrived at the main desk we were confronted with the frustrating news that the last Mackintosh tour had just left. 😢 Since the museum is closed on Mondays it was a great disappointment. However, once we begin our tour of the rest of the museum our disappointment quickly turned to contentment with an outstanding and comprehensive exhibit, The Whistler Collection, one of international importance plus a fine collection of paintings by the Colourists as well as the Glasgow Boys. As the character Lily in Kevin Hanke's stories about Lily often exclaims when she really likes something...WOW!!...an exclamation uttered by us over and over again. There were a number of the Colourists' paintings by Peploe and Cadell of places we had just visited on the Isles of Mull and Iona...and they plus a number of other paintings by these groups were added to my growing list of favorites. 

A pleasant walk back to the car for another trip back across the city in another direction hoping to catch Evensong at St. Mungo Cathedral. Alas, we walked in just when the organist was playing the postlude. We sat quietly and listened to it and then had about 30 minutes to explore the rest of the cathedral before closing time. 

When we exited the cathedral the sun was shining brilliantly and the sky was so blue with great puffy white clouds so we drove next to the city center to eat dinner at Drum and Monkey pub and explore that area after eating. The evening was so spectacular that after eating we walked down the hill to George's Sq. to admire the exterior of Glasgow's City Hall. Tomorrow we hope to tour its magnificent interior. It was absolutely aglow with the beautiful evening sun shining on it against a vivid blue sky. We're nearing the longest day of the year here in Scotland where the sun doesn't set until near midnight making the evenings bright and sunny.

The driver and navigator were worn out and no amount of coaxing to continue our wanderings on this beautiful evening down along the banks of the Clyde tempted them. Back to our hotel for planning how best to fit in our long list of mainly Rennie Mackintosh sites to see tomorrow, our final day not only in Glasgow, but also the last day of this year's touring our favorite isle with Malcolm and Dolly. In spite of some hits and misses, our first day in Glasgow was full and overflowing with good and beautiful things. 

So long, Mull! Helło Ayrshire!

Early morning fog and grey skies with patches of blue and the promise of sun as we drive on to the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry headed to Oban. As we cruise along we say our last good-byes to Duart Castle while enjoying a quick reminisce of our wonderful week of happy wanderings, delicious dining, boat trips that landed us on idyllic Iona and magical Staffa for a musical cave and entertaining puffins plus a fabulous flat beside a ruined castle on a pretty loch where we could relax in all the comforts of home when the day's jaunts were over. We often said it was as pretty as any place on the island.

Once off the ferry it was a long drive to Ayrshire where we fell in love with the gentle, pastoral landscape with flocks of sheep and cows grazing. Our first stop was at Culzean Castle and Garden, a place we've longed to visit for sometime. Both the castle and the gardens were super. We so enjoyed our meanderings in the warm sun. En route to our next stop, the seaside town of Girvan, we drove by the very beautiful and famous golf course, Turnberry. In Girvan  Malcolm was eager to find a building his artist grandfather, Andrew Reid, had painted probably about 1909 before he and his family emigrated to New Zealand. Down by Girvan  harbor we found the building with the tower still intact. Malcolm and Dolly now own this painting which they found in an art shop in Glasgow a few years ago. The Arches, our B and B for the evening, is very nice and the pub they suggested for dinner was incredibly delicious and beautifully presented. On to Glasgow tomorrow after a good cooked Scottish breakfast I'm sure.