started with breakfast,
as well as a full menu there was a nice selection of fruits and cereals,
and plenty of coffee,
so it was eyes down and tuck in,
an English breakfast for Diana,
similar for Kai, Steve decided on a couple of scrambled eggs topped with smoked salmon,
and for myself,
cold cuts, boiled eggs and smoked salmon,
after paying our bill and saying farewell to Pauline and Willi, for our first stop,
a walk through the forest,
up a fairly step path,
that leads from the car park next to,
St Paul's Church, Kinlochleven,
Grey Mare's Tail Waterfall,
we could hear and see it in the distance,
but it took some time to reach it,
which was a nice walk through the hillside,
and not a sound except the roar of the waterfall,
but first we had to cross a small bridge,
over this small fall,
before continuing,
along the stream,
and beside a number of old, very old dry walls, long since abandoned and covered in moss,
and here they were again,
foxgloves,
and there it was in the distance, the Mairs Tail,
we all stopped to have a look,
at the bottom of which a few small falls looked nice,
I decided to get a closer look at the falls,
and moving closer saw a few more small falls at the base of the large one,
like this one,
back to the big one, the Mares Tail itself, this was about as close as I could get,
we turned back,
passing more dry walls,
and over the bridge we waked over earlier,
what stories these walls could tell!
back into the car,
we were on our way to Glasgow,
we were taking a leisurely drive,
as our flight did not leave until this evening, so we would arrive home late this evening,
unfortunately we flew with Easyjet,
which meant that we would not arrive until the early hours of the morning! still although Easyjet was the first in the list of most delayed flights, second and third place went to Ryanair and and here is a surprise, in third place British Airways,
our trusty hire car never missed a beat,
in the distance clouds had started,
to roll in,
but behind,
and beside us,
blue skies,
we pressed on, passing this strange some what over built bridge,
until in the distance,
we could see another ski lift,
so we made our way,
over moorland to reach it,
after parking up,
we noticed these small lodges,
and these almost looking like Hobbit homes,
with their grass look alike roofs,
a quick pose,
and we were on our way,
past the silent sentry,
madeit looks like from car parts,
the lodge itself,
so inside for a coffee,
and soon we were on the road again,
and making good time,
as we sped to The Green Welly Stop,
not long now, we stopped there on the way to Ben Nevis,
but what a surprise, this time it had become a bike fest, motorcycles everywhere,
this one standing head and shoulders above the rest, a Triumph Thruxton 1200 R, of all of the motorcycles here this is the only choice for me, a cafe racer with pedigree in spades,
coffee over and off to Loch Lomond,
hopefully in a few months time,
Diana and myself are going to drive to Scotland taking in a number of stops in England on the way, and one things we want to do is have a cruise around Loch Lomond or Loch Ness in one of these tour boats,
I remember this roundabout at the beginning of our trip,
but not this one,
over the first span of the bridge,
then the second,
for a bite to eat at, you guessed it, McDonalds!
and here we are in Glasgow,
and where better to spend a few hours,
than the Glasgow Botanic Gardens?
ice cream before or after the visit? that is the question,
the garden was large, free and full of glass houses,
like this one looking like a mini Kew,
flower beds on the left as you walked up the hill,
as another set of glass houses came into view,
it does not look the same in the photograph, but this Begonia was the reddest red I have seen in a flower,
plenty if room for sun bathers, and there were a few,
as we entered the main building, a fig tree, which brought back memories of Livia, having just poisoned her husband saying to her son, at the side of her husband's death bed, 'do not eat the figs',
her husband, Augustus, decided that to be safe from being poisoned, he would only drink milk he took from from a cow by his own hand, and eat only what he had himself picked himself, in this case figs, unfortunately he did not recon on his wife coating the figs with poison, hence the warning to her son when he looked at a bowl of figs by the bed of Augustus, 'do not eat the figs',
as we went into the main house there was an impressive display,
surrounded by a pond with some fish in it,
on the right hand side, a glass house being replanted,
on the left one marked, Killer Plants, well we just had to have a look,
and what a surprise,
the room was cram packed with insectivorous plants,
I have never seen so many Sarracenia, even when years ago I would visit nurseries that specialize in carnivorous plants,
I just had to make a few panoramas,
of the glass house,
I thought the selection at Kew was large, but this was way bigger,
the varieties seemed endless,
I was definitely in my seventh heaven,
again the same thought went through my head,
if only we had a garden I could have a greenhouse and grow,
some of these beauties,
and speaking of beauties, the girls decided to have a sit down,
so Steve and myself had a look in the rotunda,
and what a treat inside,
all manner of plants on display,
it is amazing enough to see these in London,
but further north where it is a lot colder,
it must take huge amounts of fuel to keep the houses warm in winter,
and what fabulous plants there were here,
like this Lacy Tree Fern, (Cyathea cooperi),
looking so nice,
its fonds with their almost hairy covering,
mosses were not excluded as well,
many growing up the trunks,
of plants and ferns,
as well as on the ground,
and lots of specie too,
one thing that Kew does not need is lighting,
but here in the north extra lights are needed for the optimum growth and health of the plants,
the girls decided to let us go wandering,
so I took Steve to the carnivorous plant house, as he had not been with me the first tine I looked in, and we found these,
sundews, (Drosera), in flower,
along the edges of the leaves,
there is a sticky dew like series of droplets that trap the unwary insect,
and of course there had to be some Venus fly traps, (Dionaea muscipula),
the girls decided to join us,
so we were off to the next series of greenhouses,
here a general assortment of plants,
on both sides of the entrance,
but when we walked through the doors to the next section,
what a surprise,
the room was a riot of colour,
and had some unusual succulents just about to flower,
the flowers had to be seen to be believed,
a real stunning display,
I ahd no idea that there would be a show like this,
even Diana was impressed!
Steve and myself,
started through the different houses,
each one featuring a range of plants,
like this one,
that had orchids,
growing on logs,
as they would in the wild,
although they had a number of cultivated varieties,
like this one,
most were as you would find as a plant explorer,
it really was just like being in the jungle,
with just now and again one in flower,
this one sadly past its best,
but here was a small show,
as this hanging flower was showing,
on the right hand side,
some orchids behind glass,
just in case someone wanted to pick this one,
or this beauty,
what a stunner,
we made our way out of the orchid house,
back into the main section,
the into the dry,
cactus section,
unusually thi Madagascar Palm, (Pachypodium lamerei),
was in flower,
and nice it looked too,
again a lovely collection,
of cactus,
and of course no collection would be complete without a barrel cactus, (Echinocactus grusonii),
what a collection,
I had no idea there would be so many houses with different areas covered,
moving into the next house,
a strange one,
in flower, Costus dinklagei, sorry it does not have a common name, so there it is,
this was a hot house,
with lot of humidity,
where we spotted this, hanging like a living curtain, a Mysore trumpetvine or Indian clock vine, (Thunbergia mysorensis),
the flowers look,
and are absolutely stunning,
like Kew the greenhouse have a upper level,
but alas,
the circular staircase is out of bounds,
we moved into another insectivorous room,
this one with pitcher plants, which comprises of the groups, Sarracenia, Nepenthes and Darlingtonia,
also in this room,
the tree that started a mutiny, the famous breadfruit tree, (Artocarpus altilis),
for a factual review of the mutiny this one here sticks pretty close to the facts, the good news is that 10 mutineers in their own words make up a compelling read of what happened, if you are into mutines here is a site that details 6 of them British, American, Russian, French and German, only 5 listed because we scored twice,
and now for something completely different,
a yellow beehive ginger plant, (Zingiber spectabilis),
what a strange looking flower,
and looking similar, the Panama Hat Plant, (Carludovica palmata),
the hats are made from the central spine of the leaf,
and we all know this one,
bananas,
into the next room,
even more steamy,
as it is the home of the ferns,
and what beauties they have here,
the sunlight making some of them translucent,
and so many species, all the same but different,
we moved into Begonias,
not the great big showy ones,
that we saw when we entered the collection of greenhouses,
these appear to be more as they are found in their native habitat,
we looked along one side, then went into the next room
where there were still a few ferns,
and others like these, a lipstick plant, (Aeschynanthus radicans),
we continued along the other side of the central aisle,
arriving back in the Begonia house,
there were so many of them,
but none of the showy ones we are so use to,
as well as Begonias,
mixed in there were some,
and another pool,
although a lot smaller than the first one,
next Bromeliads,
in a couple of varieties,
some in flower,
around the raised pool,
it really looked like a jungle,
amazing, I would never have expected to see so many plants and specimens as I have today,
and there were still more,
as we walk out,
I noticed some more Aeschynanthus,
what a wonderful botanic garden, and it is free!
by now we were at the far end of the greenhouses,
so we walked back to where we had left the girls,
the area under glass was huge,
and so nicely laid out,
the main house so reminiscent of Kew,
now it was ice cream time!
we made a move back to the car, and passed one of these sign boards,
with this warning pasted on it,
into the tunnel under the River Clyde and on to the airport,
where as I did not have anything to eat in McDonalds at lunch time, I had bangers and mash as a meal,
Steve and Kai did not eat anything, Diana had a snack,
'Cheers!',
by now it was getting late,
as was the airplane,
firstly a 30 minute delay,
which stretched to an hour,
and then became 2 hours,
but we finally made it home arriving in the early hours of Monday morning, not ideal as Diana has to go work on Monday until midnight, but there it is, thanks Easyjet, but that aside what a great few days away, and with that we were off to bed.
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