Shopping for Apples

The grey weather continues.  Last week on the day all the news bulletins were highlighting the drought conditions in the south of England we had gallons of the wet stuff pouring from the sky unremittingly for 24 hours.  You have to laugh.  At least there have been plenty of other entertainment opportunities rather than sunbathing all the time.  Back to back good films in our wee cinema – last week we saw The Iron Lady and last night The Artist.  I thoroughly enjoyed both.  My reaction to the recent Film Club offerings is more mixed.  Couldn’t work out what The Tree of Life was about although it did have lots of pretty colours, but very much appreciated the superb acting in Of Gods and Men.  There have also been concerts and excellent lectures at the Lit and the Natural History Society.

Today in Glasgow we had cause to make a very small purchase in the grandiose surroundings of the Apple store in Buchanan Street ( the pension or piggy bank wouldn’t manage anything larger).  The place is amazing – very shiny and minimalist, full of shiny gadgets and staffed by shiny young people.  We made our selection from a rack and looked around for a Pay Here sign or till point.  A helpful young lady holding a very small card reader device approached, and the sale was completed there on the spot (nowhere near anything resembling a shop counter).  Credit card inserted, the magic four numbers tapped in, deal completed.  We reinforced our country bumpkin / age credentials  with our amazed response to the gentle explanation that the receipt would be emailed to us.

I couldn’t help compare this shopping experience to my childhood memories of purchases made in the Shettleston Road Co-op with my mother.  Sixty years ago Mum would take her selected item to the polished wooden counter, the price would be checked on the tiny little piece of card attached with fine string, and a handwritten docket (?) filled out (no bar codes for scanning and not even a sticky label).  Then the best bit – the cash (strictly no credit or plastic cards) and docket were placed into a small cylindrical container, the lid screwed tightly in place, and with a very satisfying whoosh the whole thing got sooked into the pipes which criss crossed the ceiling on their way to the glass enclosed Cash Desk.  By the time the item had been carefully packaged in brown paper tied with string (no plastic carrier bags) the money container, now with a receipt and the change, would have returned with a clatter and a second noisy whoosh.  I thought it was magic back then just as I thought shopping today was done by magic.

More apples are being purchased.  This time in the form of the fruit trees for the ‘orchard’.  Our helpful gardener is taking his pick up to the nursery on the mainland to-morrow to buy the trees and shrubs.  I think a plastic card will be wafted again – hope it doesn’t melt.

A Bracing Walk

There are definite signs of spring about – plenty of snowdrops, even some crocuses and the daffodils are about a foot high but still no flowers there.  The wee birds in the garden are beginning to behave in a pairing off kind of way and the eider ducks are appearing in raft formation out on the sea.  We had a lovely walk yesterday in spite of quite a heavy sky and a chill northerly breeze.

February Gorse

In sheltered spots the gorse bushes were dazzling with their  day-glo flowers.  We left the car at Ettrick Bay and walked up the single track road going north towards Kilmichael.

Exercise on the Beach

The photograph above is not of the best quality, I was too far away, but it was lovely to watch this horse and owner ‘paddling’ in the shallows.

Bridge at Ettrick Bay

Every time I pass this old bridge I wonder how old it might be.  I suppose it has survived because half of the stream now goes around the bridge.  As we walked along we could see the damage caused by the recent strong winds even to the quite low growing scrubby woodland up this side of the island. Not as dramatic as the huge mature trees completely uprooted.

Broken Branches

I was peering into this rough woodland with more interest as the night before at the Natural History Society the forester from the Community Forest had explained about continuous cropping of trees.  In my ignorance I had thought that when a planted forest got to a certain height then all the trees would be felled at the same time (called clearance felling) but here on Bute ‘our’ forest will be ‘thinned’ over the next twenty to thirty years ie selected trees will be removed individually to be used in wood products (buildings and fencing) while the rest are allowed to continue to grow.  The idea is that as trees are felled the canopy reduces and natural regeneration occurs – self seeded saplings will have space and light to grow.

Motorway Cafe for Birds

At one point along the road, several miles from the nearest houses, we came across half a dozen home made fat balls strung up in the bushes.  I have no idea which bird loving person had gone to the considerable effort of making and hanging these tasty food supplies but the flock of chaffinches were appreciative.

We were lucky that none of the increasingly thick clouds produced any rain on us but we were still happy to retreat to the Ettrick Bay Cafe for coffee and cake.

Sheltering Snowdrops