Saturday 24 January 2009

Glasgow Botanic Gardens


We went to Glasgow today and wandered around the Botanic Gardens there. The Gardens are attached to a lovely riverside walk and also have a large array of attractive glasshouses full of interesting plants. There are very good collections of ferns, insectivorous plants and orchids. Many of the orchids were in full bloom, see the third photo above (taken by my partner). Some of the glasshouses have snippets of poetry arranged between the plants, I assume these were put in place by Gerry Loose, when he was Poet in Residence of Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Sadly though the official Poetry Garden, in front of the visitor centre, seems to have been a little neglected and is, poetically at least, a bit disappointing.

We were also lucky to get a very close view of two treecreepers on a beech tree in the Botanic Gardens and a very close view of a buzzard somewhere between Glasgow and Edinburgh as we came home on the train.

16 comments:

Caroline Gill said...

Beautiful light in the photos.

Janice Thomson said...

I had to look treecreepers up and to my surprise we have a version of this called the browncreeper - the only North American bird of the treecreeper species. Thanks for this info - I'll be looking for this bird now :)

Faye said...

Juliet, your photography is fantastic! I love the banner for this blog so much. I want others to see your photos and to read your poetry, so I have given you an award, which you can pick up on my blog.

RG said...

Oh boy the train ... going anywhaere here in the PAcific NW on a train is a major production and there are only a very few destinations.

Devika Jyothi said...

Lovely photos, Juliet :)

wishes,
dvika

Anonymous said...

How wonderful to see these photos. Just gorgeous. Thank you so much!

mansuetude said...

i love the light in your photos. so lovely.

lunarossa said...

Beautiful photos of a beautiful place. Another location to add to my list next time I go to Glasgow. Thanks! Ciao. Antonella

Outsideofacat said...

those photos are amazing. very well done. thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

oh it is beautiful! we've got a conservatory of flowers here too, in San Francisco...I helped restore it!

Deb G said...

That sounds like such a wonderful trip. Our local grocery stores are just starting to sell primroses. I have spring fever so bad....

Area 17 said...

That's a shame about the Poetry Garden. Gerry had a nice book called The Botanical Basho come out of that.

Maybe some of the rengaistas could lend a hand?

all my best,

Alan
The With Words Competition 2009

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Christy Woolum said...

Now this is a place I would love to visit!

Gerry Loose said...

Sorry you found the Poetry Garden less than you would have liked on your visit. You'll find that now it's looking a lot trimmer, with new posts on the platform & the ferns looking autumnally good.
Did you notice the 3-way inscription on the garden path?
all best
Gerry

Gerry Loose said...

ps
there's another book that came out of that - called Ten Seasons & published by the Scottish Poetry Library & Luath Press.
Gerry

Area 17 said...

Glasgow renga links please for the local/global 1000 Verse Renga Project! ;-)

We can always do with some more renga verses from Scotland!

Some of the ways you can send renga verses:

Renga verse email: 1000verses@withwords.org.uk

OR

Txt a Renga Verse to B&ANES County Council 'rengaline': 07797 806 545

Start the txt with RENGA
followed by the verse and your name (first or full) and location

1000 Verse Renga Project weblinks:

BBC 1000 verse renga article

Bath Chronicle newspaper supporter & article

1000 Verse Renga Project

all my best,
Alan,

With Words in partnership with Bath Libraries

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