Glasgow West End: Jim's West End Photo Diary April 2000

My picture gallery contains; photographs of the West End of Glasgow, photographs of Glasgow, and photographs of Scotland.

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20th April 2000

The Armadillo

Surprise surprise another diary entry and it's only been two days since the last one. That's because I'm finally finishing work for a wee easter break, which gives me a little more time to devote to a life of leisure and recreation. Here are some photographs I have taken since last Saturday. The first one is of the 'Armadillo', a rather strange looking building which is an entertainment venue situated in Finnieston. I took this photograph while we were on our way to the SECC ( Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre) in Finnieston. We went there on Saturday to meet one of the exhibitors at the Scottish Tourism Conference. Unfortunately we had mis-calculated as far as the diary was concerned; we were a couple of days late and it had finished. Better late than never doesn't quite apply in this instance.

Orchid at Botanic Gardens

The other thing I did on Saturday was pop into the Orchid Fair in the Botanic Gardens. Orchids societies from throughout Scotland ( or was it just Glasgow, I'm not sure) showed off their best plants in the setting of the Kibble Palace. It was very busy and the displays and the Orchids looked 'pretty darn good to me'. I took a few pictures including the one above.

Belmont and Hillhead Parish Church

Here is the Belmont and Hillhead Parish church which I have been wanting to get a decent photograph of for a while. I'm still trying.

18th April 2000

The last few weeks have been busy, busy busy. At work my thoughts have been dominated by a conference I was jointly organising which finally came and went last Friday - phew! it all went well and it was a good day.

Mungo Campbell

Now back to the important stuff; getting out and about in the West End and taking some photographs. The last few weeks has also been a busy time as far as gathering information and photographs for the Web site has been concerned. With Pat I've been to visit Mungo Campbell, the Assistant Director of the Hunterian Art Gallery ( see picture above ) who's enthusiasm and caring attitude towards the gallery shone through. The photograph shows Mungo in one of the rooms of the famous Mackintosh house. While out we had some lunch in Sal-e Pep before I rushed back to work for the afternoon shift. In the picture below you can see Pat looking rather happy - perhaps I've just told and extremely funny joke ( or perhaps not).

A picture of Pat

Not last Saturday but the Saturday before ( or was it the Saturday before that? I can't remmember) we looked into the Kelvingrove Art Gallery to take a walk around. The paintings in the room which houses the Glasgow Boys and Girls and the furniture of Mackintosh's contempories were as usual well worth the visit. We stopped for some coffee in Gallery cafe, but to be honest I wouldn't recommend it - the cafe is pretty poor.

Kelvingrove Lights

While in the Gallery I took this picture of the magnificent lights which hang from the ceiling.

Talking - as I was previously - of drinking coffee, we also visited the new Costa Cafe on the corner of Bank St and Great Western Road for our regular Sunday morning breakfast. I quite liked the bright and cheerful decor and the 'clean and tidy bohemians' type of atmosphere. The coffee was as you would expect good, but the breakfast consisted of toast egg and bacon and didn't hit the spot for me. In fairness though they didn't say they did a traditional Sunday breakfast.

Photograph of inside Costa Coffee

To finish off this particular episode of the diary here is a picure of a beautiful sunset I witnessed from the highest point of Kelvingrove Park looking West ( I think ) towards Glasgow University. You didn't think you could see a sunset from the middle of Glasgow - well neither did I - untill it occurred to me that a trip up the hill might just give me a good view. It was well worth the walk.

Kelvingrove Sunset

1st April 2000

It's been a long time since I last updated my diary - but that doesn't mean I haven't been out and about taking photographs in the West End. With Pat working so hard on the Web site I've just not been able to get near the computer. :-)

Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Last week I went to speak to Maggie Reilly at the Zoology Museum, which is part of Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum - the idea was that I would take a few photographs and do a feature on the museum. It was an interesting trip - my first visit to the museum - and I found the skeletons, stuffed animals, live snakes, sleeping frogs and assorted beasties an enjoyable and educational experience. Maggie was very friendly and told me some stories about the museum and its collection - and will be sending me some further information soon. Sadly however, I have no photographs; my camera jammed - so I'll have to make another date before I can catch up with this particular asignment.

It wasn't a completely lost cause as far as photography was concerned - it was a really nice day and once I had managed to get the camera sorted I took a few photographs round and about the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. The best one I took is the one you can see at the top of the page.

Tulips

It's spring and the parks and road verges are full of daffodils, tulips and and a colourful array of spring flowers. The gardeners at Kelvingrove park have obviously been working hard throughout the winter as there are great displays to be found throughout the park. I took the photograph of the tulips (above) the Sunday before last as we ( i.e Pat and myself) walked through the park on a detour down to Partick for our Sunday breakfast.

Pat and Beverly

As we walked across Partick Bridge we met some friends of Pat's, Beverly and Keith. Here is a picture of Pat and Beverly smiling for the camera.

Picture of Jinty McGintys

Spring doesn't just bring out the flowers - it also brings out the locals to enjoy some of the first warm rays of sunshine this year. Jinty McGinty's is always a big attraction but even more so on such a nice day.

Flower

Just for a change here are a couple of photographs I took in the house. The first one I don't know the name of - but it's a bulb which produces these amazing large flowers. The once on below, looks to me like a Sunflower - as Pat has pointed out it doesn't quite fit in with this months spring theme but it's an attractive big flower so I couldn't resist putting it on film.

Sunflower

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