Posted in Art, Trips at 14:00 on 29 September 2026
More Hockney in the Cartwright Memorial Hall, Bradford.
“Bradford Indoor Market” and “Artist’s Family at Tea”:-
“A Bounce for Bradford,” part of a morale boosting campaign for the City in 1987 after the fire at Valley Parade:-
“Autumn” from 1954:-
“Moorside Road from 1955:-
Untitled late work made on an iPad:-
Posted in Art, Events dear boy. Events, Trips at 16:00 on 28 September 2026
Artist David Hockney (who died in June) is one of Bradford’s most famous sons. The Cartwright Memorial Hall and Gallery holds several of his works. Two of them are the Bradford Phone Book for 1989 and A Travel Guide to Bradford from 1992:-
Le Plongeur (Paper Pool 18) is a more typical Hockney:-
Early drawings:-
Pencil Drawings:-
Street Scene on Hillside:-
David Hockney: 9/7/1937 – 11/6/2026. So it goes.
Posted in History, Trips at 18:00 on 27 September 2026
Sadly, four of the Maxwell-Stuart family who owned Traquair House were killed in the Great War. Their medals and photographs are on display in the left hand new wing.
An accompanying information sheet lists their fates:-
Posted in History, Trips at 12:00 on 26 September 2026
The Stewarts and Maxwell Stewarts of Traquair House were firm Jacobites and the house contains Jacobite relics.
Hair belonging to the parents of Bonnie Prince Charlie:-
Portrait of “Betty Burke”, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s alias when he was on the run disguised as a woman. The caption spells it Burk:-
The family was Catholic. This is the Priest Hole:-
And its stairs:-
The Lion Gates to Traquair House were closed when James VII (James II of England) was deposed, not to be re-opened until the Stewarts were restored to the throne. They remain firmly shut:-
Posted in 1980s, Live It Up, Music at 12:00 on 25 September 2026
The first hit for the band. No 8 in 1985.
Fine Young Cannibals: Johnny Come Home
Posted in Trips at 12:00 on 24 September 2026
Drawing room:-
The dining room is situated in one of the new wings of the house:-
The old laundry has been preserved:-
Posted in Trips at 13:00 on 23 September 2026
Pottery:-
There are two rooms in Traquair House used as libraries. First:-
Second:-
In an upper room there is this diploma given to the house owner Sir John Stewart by Charles I:-
The above lies in a cabinet below a mural:-
Description of mural:-
Further along the upper floor is a bedroom:-
One part of an old painted ceiling has been kept exposed:-
View of maze from house:-
Posted in Reading Reviewed, Scottish Fiction at 14:00 on 22 September 2026
Canongate, 2026, 316 p.
A third outing for Welsh’s Rilke, auctioneer at Bowery Auctions in Glasgow – and sometime private investigator. On page 1 – no messing here – he discovers a body on the auction rooms’ back premises. This is Mandy Manderson, a Bowery Auctions client, killed with a hatpin pushed through his eye; a hatpin which Rose Bowery, the auction rooms’ owner, had been brandishing before television cameras as a potential murder weapon only hours earlier. To protect Rose, whom he knows is not a killer, Rilke removes the hatpin, cleans it up and restores it to the auction lot before calling the police.
Rilke thereafter is treading a fine line between the SIO, Inspector Murchison, son of a well-known judge, and crime boss Ray (Razzle Dazzle) Diamond, who has taken displeasure at Rilke’s childhood pal Les, recently out of jail, but wants Rilke to find the killer since Manderson had been on his payroll.
Throw in Rilke’s homosexuality, dodgy cop Thurso Scanlon (Les’s nemesis and also on Rilke’s case,) a connection to Gallowhall, a former boys’ home with a bad reputation, and the pot is well stirred.
This is the usual accomplished offering from Welsh, with rounded characters, a cast of suspects, the sense of Glasgow as a city, a well-placed hint of the perpetrator and some red herrings to follow up.
Pedant’s corner:- “A table of actors …. were engaged in” (the subject of the verb here isn’t actually actors but table; ‘a table of …. was engaged in’,) “Jetpacks’ ribs” (Jetpacks’ several times; Jetpacks’s.) “A selection of sandwiches and shop-bought cakes were sweating beneath clingfilm” (a selection … was sweating,) “Mary, Queen of Scots’ final walk” (Scots’s,) “Tam Shepherds Trick Shop” (Shepherd’s, surely?) sat (x 2, sitting,) Panetella (x 3, that type of cigar is a Panatella, panatela or panetela.)
Posted in Bridges, Trips at 15:00 on 21 September 2026
River Tweed at Coldstream:-
From same vantage point but looking towards the bridge at the border with England:-
I have featured Coldstream War Memorial before, a cenotaph inset into a wall, but this is a better photo:-
This time I took a close-up of the dedications and names:-
Posted in Dumbarton FC at 16:30 on 20 September 2026
SPFL Tier 4, The Rock, 19/09/26.
Football is a funny game. On the face of it this was a comprehensive win, yet at no time during it did it feel that way. Yes we scored early, a fine move down the right with Robbie Cleary and Mikey Doyle exchanging passes before Doyle crossed for Deryn Lang to get in front of his defender and smash the ball in. But the BBC statistics show we had only 31% possession over the whole game.
Mind you new loan keeper Mason Munn barely had a save to make, certainly not from a threatening shot. It has to be said he looked assured enough, a contrast to Harry Broun who has now left the club again after only rejoining a couple of weeks ago.
The formation was strange again, selection bingo once more at work. The choice of fielding Leighton McIntosh in midfield seemed odd but someone on Pie and Bovril opined he had been given a man marking job. Another returnee, Tom Lang, helped to shore up the defence. While Spartans moved the ball about – and looked as if they had played together before – they seemed to lack penetration.
We did little of attacking note in the first half after we scored and thoughts of last week’s second half capitulation against Stranraer were never far away.
The second goal changed things and, like two weeks ago against Elgin, there was an air of freakishness about it, Robbie Cleary’s corner bouncing off a defender and going in off the post. The players celebrated it big style.
I thought to myself, though, how on Earth are we winning this 2-0? Apart from the goals their keeper hadn’t a save to make. It was that kind of game.
Spartans had to come at us a bit more after that and despite our last two substitutions smacking of a defensive mindset we managed up the park a few times. Josiah Sowa, who had come on midway through the half, showed just how good he can be at exploiting space when he cut in from the left and pinged a beauty in for no 3 in stoppage time.
We’re now joint second bottom, or alternatively, joint sixth and only two points off the promotion play-off spots. No chickens being counted here though. I think the players won this despite the manager, not because of him.
