Birds and gulls
(Looking up on Renfrew street: Glasgow, Scotland)
There’s been many a local observational post of late – the better weather has allowed much more outdoor photography and I have been enjoying it so much. Yesterday I spent the entire day out of the flat – I mean studio – on a long cycling haul through the West End. I say the weather has improved, but during the course of the day I was heavily rained on, then freezing cold, almost burned by the sun, hailed on and too hot all at different points of the afternoon. Ah, Glasgow.
Here’s a view of one of the streets in my romantically titled area of Garnethill. I noted recently that the moulded metal birds atop each lamppost are only present here on this one tall hill of Glasgow. There’s a famous poem about Glasgow detailing the story of Saint Mungo and it mentions ‘the bird that never flew’ – perhaps these birds are an allusion to that. More likely, (and less whimsically) they are a failed attempt to stop birds congregating on the top of every object and befouling the place with their surprisingly enormous droppings. In fact, the very morning of my 1980s themed party, a seagull aimed for my kitchen window in such a way that it can only have been deliberate. It was a disparaging event seeing as the insult was practically central and hit the glass at such an effective trajectory that it spread over a considerable area. As a rule, I like animals, but I think I may be found wringing the neck of a belligerent seagull in the future. Anyway, needless to say, the fake metal bird theory does not work so well. In daylight, the metal birds themselves often have a real pigeon twirling on their backs or a seagull straddling them, crying into the street. I don’t mind the fake birds; at least they’re quiet at 4am. I noticed these two (there’s one just above the lamp itself) against the faint glimmers of a setting sun. I was lucky to get a faraway seagull gliding into the bottom of the frame, as if asserting itself against these imposters.
– Today Rosie is probably at her desk and scribbling ideas down in Glasgow, Scotland –
This was outside my window in halls!
Fond / smelly memories…. my socks are sparkley…