3 Grans (and a grandchild) in Paisley

A couple of weeks ago LanarkshireGran (LG), LittleSheBear (LSB) (with grand-daughter A (GDA)) and I visited Paisley. My having visited a friend in hospital there earlier this year had aroused my interest in the historic town and my granny friends were interested too, so we arranged to meet up. LSB, GDA and I got the ferry from Kilcreggan to Gourock and then a train to Paisley Gilmour Street station where we met LG. In the square just outside the station there was a show of vintage American cars. I only took a couple of photos. The main impression on me was their hugeness! Nice to see though.

LG's daughter and son-in-law lived for a time in the cobbled street (Church Hill, I think) that has the church spire at the top.

 

Having perused the display of cars, and in 3grans tradition, we headed to a cafe. I was going to refer to it as The Purple Cafe but I looked it up; it is Cafe fairfull. LanarkshireGran and I tested Fairfull's empire biscuit and a salted caramel brownie (half of each each; both scored highly), LSB had a scone, and GDA had a strawberry pavlova for one which was actually enough for two. She did her seven-year-old best to munch through it all but gradually, via a meringue-mashing, cream-dolloping stage, ground to a halt.

We wended our way around Paisley noting nods to famous Paisley people such as the sewing thread Coats family who funded an observatory and Alexander Wilson, "the father of American Ornithology". Knowing of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology through my Ithaca-based brother, I wondered if Alexander Wilson had any connection there. It seems not directly, but I'm sure they know about him.

We came upon the Sma' Shot Cottages. We went in the back door so we didn't see the lion outside the front till later but I'll start with it here:

"Sma' shot" refers to the spool on which yarn was wound and
which was loaded into the spool holder that was
shot between the warp threads on the loom
(I think!)

A loom on the side of the lion

Inside we enjoyed the knowledgeable tour guide's tales. The whole Sma' Shot project is run by volunteers and is impressive. During much of our tour GDA occupied herself quietly on the floor of one of the rooms drawing in her notebook but she joined us to bong the bell that used to call Paisley weavers to work (two of we 3grans in the background).

 

Two pics from inside the workshop

I don't seem to have taken photos of the living rooms of the cottages – small rooms housing a lot of people; too busy looking, I expect. I learned that old wooden potato mashers did indeed look very like carvers' mallets of the past but potato mashers had a more rounded edge at the bashing end.

I did take a photo of this child's toy. It shows three different sizes of what the Scots call a "gird and cleek". The gird is the hoop and the cleek is for pushing it along – requires practice to get skilled at this!

We then wandered over to Paisley Abbey. I particularly liked the new stone roof of the choir and the awesomely good quilted hangings on and behind a lectern. Our guide here told LG and me interesting stuff about stone masons' marks which, I gathered, are recycled. After the mason using one has died that mark is available for use by a new mason.

We enjoyed a few minutes beside the river, White Cart Water, than runs through Paisley before parting for our journeys home. We tried to work out where the White Cart ford could have been, presuming it to have been near the abbey, but it wasn't easy. It's quite a big river.

All in all a very successful 3grans (plus tagalong) outing.

Three grans visit Dundee

One of us set off from South Lanarkshire and got to Dundee by bus from Glasgow. Two of us set off together from East Argyll and got there by car. After we car travellers had attempted to persuade the very modern looking parking meter, all shiny contactless pads and card insertion slots, to behave like a modern parking meter, we gave up and scrabbled in our purses for pound coins. It wasn't just us; a man tried too. We think Dundee City Council has forgotten to switch all the modern looking stuff on. Or maybe they had ambitions bigger than their tech team's current abilities. Teething problems, I suppose.

The plan was for us to visit the new Dundee V&A design museum. We all have birthdays, if we squash in one slight outlier, in the last quarter of the year and, rather than buy presents for each other, we decided this year to make an outing our joint birthday Do. How to start a tradition in one easy lesson!

The outside of the building has a certain shippiness about it, in keeping with Dundee's shipping history. Appropriately it is 'berthed' right next to Discovery. Inside all is shiny and new, as you'd expect.

shop and cafe as you come in

As is usual on these three gran meetups, we headed coffee and scone-rhymes with gone-wards first. My scone was good (large and filling) and, since I can't remember anything about the coffee, it was obviously just fine too. LanarkshireGran and I shared a small pot of jam but there was still a bit left in the wee jar. My elder daughters will remember the glove compartment in my old car, Diggory, which always housed a few little part used jam jars from motorway service stations–plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. This one got put in my pocket though.

We browsed the Scottish Design Relay exhibition. There were some lovely folded and cut paper designs which I don't seem to have photographed and various primitive weavings of beachcombed litter in the relay part. Also some impressive, more sophisticated, 'bruck' designs. Bruck is beachcombed plastic.

The Scottish Design Galleries, an enclosed area which you had to queue to get in so that it didn't get overcrowded, contained historic, more museum-like articles. The bright young things on the doors did have walkie-talkies but I discovered from chatting to one of them that they rarely use the gadgets, they just learn to sense when another bunch of people can be let in. It helps the letter-inner that the exit is visible from where she stands ;). Below are a few of my favourites.

modelled half hull of an ocean liner

The Indian shawls were simply astonishing. They were as big as small blankets for a start. The red one was made of a misture of wool, cotton and silk if I've remembered correctly. The white one is pure wool which, as you might be able to see at the bottom near the fringe, is spun into yarn almost as fine as spider silk. The model of the Edinburgh Scott Monument was what was submitted for the design competition by George Meikle Kemp who won the commission.

I did not stay as long in that exhibition as I would have liked because I was feeling a bit weird–just fighting off a cold virus or something. Hot tea and refreshingly cold water, supplied by LanarkshireGran, soon sorted me out, though later my throat started to make a fuss. A cheeseburger and a strawberry milkshake dealt with that.

That 'later' was when we wandered the city centre streets for a while after leaving the V&A. It is looking a lot smarter than it did in the late 1970s when I lived there as a student. This was nice to see. I took a couple of lamp shots for some Lake District Twitter nutters I follow for entertainment.


And we all enjoyed a meander around the Howff, loving the late roses in particular.


After our burgers LSBgran and I walked back to the dockside against a fierce breeze, saying goodbye to LanarkshireGran on the High Street as she veered off to catch her bus. Driving back westwards the lashing rain increased but we'd had a good day out.