Glasgow spring

We're in the full bloom of spring here in Glasgow. Finally.

Flowers have been popping up for a month, and now the trees have grudgingly begun to sprout leaves. Over the past several weeks we've been spending more time outdoors — it's getting progressively warmer, drier, and sunnier. Since our beloved dog, Mattie, passed away last autumn I haven't been out quite as much as I have been in the past.

Life without a dog has made me more sedentary, and that's something I've gotta correct. So I've been doing some wandering lately, occasionally capturing a few springtime photos.

A lovely footbridge over the River Clyde. Built in 1856, St. Andrew's Suspension Bridge replaced a busy ferry boat used by factory workers.

As I noted last year, springtime here

is a slow burn, teasing, tempting, flashing a smile and demurely lowering her eyes. Spring has been tantalizing us, seducing us, for weeks. Until the last few days, she's mostly been raising her petticoat and exposing her ankles. Now, it seems, she's ready for her miniskirt.

Amidst the gardens of Pollock House.

Jackson got his face painted at the vet school's annual "rodeo." It was supposed to be a dinosaur, but looks more like a crocodile.

A bit of fireman beefcake helping the wee ones spray the hoses at the rodeo. Water is Scotland's most abundant natural resource.

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of this building, the old Templeton Carpet Factory, and the trees were barren.

Adjacent to the Templeton Carpet Factory are these drying poles on the Glasgow Green. Going back to medieval times, the Freemen of Glasgow hold the right to dry clothing on the Green. These drying poles were installed in Victorian times, and used regularly into the 1970s.

The mute swans along our stretch of the Forth & Clyde canal are back to their egg laying. Hopefully, however, they'll have more success than last year.

Flowers bloom in front of the University of Glasgow's main campus.

After the long Scottish winter of rain and dark, spring can never come soon enough. Of course, as I write this it's currently hailing outside. And earlier this week, we actually had a short burst of snow.

Some of you gentle readers have been enjoying spring for months now. We're inching along, bloom by bloom.

Short photo recap of a long Easter weekend

Britain provides two public holidays for Easter weekend, one for Good Friday and one for Easter Monday. Schools often close for two full weeks around Easter. Besides providing family time, the four-day weekend signals the start of the tourist season, with prices for flights and hotels beginning to rise as summer approaches.

We didn't travel anywhere, but we did enjoy a lovely long weekend. Here's a quick photo recap:

It was new to us, but there's a tradition here of decorating Easter bonnets. Jackson's nursery — he attends two mornings a week — had a little Easter bonnet "parade" a couple days before the long weekend. That meant a craft assignment for mom and dad. Isn't the whole point of sending the kid to nursery that he does this stuff at the nursery, so mom and dad don't have to suffer through it?

Pollock House was built in the 1750s. It is one of many properties operated by the National Trust of Scotland which this weekend hosted an Easter egg hunt, all sponsored by Cadbury.

For the Easter egg hunt, the kids searched for pirates which were hiding letters.

There were eight letters hidden around the country house. In this room, the letter was "hidden" on the left side of the fireplace.

Jackson receives his Cadbury egg after finding all eight letters and unscrambling them (well, mom and dad unscrambled them) to spell a word.

We also celebrated Kate's 38th birthday this weekend. She received gifts like this combination birdhouse and feeder . . .

. . . and this Panasonic Lumix TZ70, a terrific compact camera that can be stored easily in a purse or pocket. We lost our previous compact camera about 18 months ago, so this is a great addition for our explorations.

We celebrated Easter, which in our agnostic household is not much more than hiding and finding eggs.

We also spent a full afternoon on an urban hike in central Glasgow. We passed, among many other things, the People's Palace and Winter Gardens on Glasgow Green.

A mural on Ingram Street, depicting Scotland's four seasons.

Completed in 1626, this Tolbooth Steeple is all that remains of Glasgow's medieval municipal building.

We walked for awhile along the River Clyde.

We swung by the former Templeton Carpet Factory, which at one point was the largest carpet factory in the world. Now it's occupied by other businesses, including a beer brewery.

Had to keep the wee one happy during our excursion.

We finished our urban hike with a stroll up Buchanan Street, the premier shopping drag in Scotland.

At the end of our walk, we stumbled across Five Guys in downtown Glasgow, which was a pleasant surprise for us. Apparently, it opened just as we were headed back to the States for a visit.

Jackson picked up on how excited Kate and I were to find a Five Guys, and decided he'd make some crazy eyes, too.

We also spent time during the weekend watching the Final Four. We had some expat veterinary students over at our house until around 4:00 am on Sunday morning. I almost won our NCAA Tournament bracket pool; tied for first place, but lost the tiebreaker. [Grumble, grumble, grumble]

Since the championship game didn't start until nearly 2:30 am on Tuesday morning, we recorded the game and got up at 6:00 am to watch. My law school alma mater, Duke, won its fifth national championship! (Photo courtesy of News & Observer.)