Friday, 16 September 2011

hurricane winds, crouching houses












For the second week we have moved on to Port William on the south West coast of Galloway. On the way we passed the Wicker

Man [woman? s/he looks rather fey] fortunately for him/her no flames until next year.








We arrived in PW just in time for the tail end of Hurricane Katia




A very dramatic sea-scape at the bottom of the garden.






Apparently Scottish Electric turned off their wind turbines because they had more than enough electricity.


Happily the weather repented and has been kind ever since, sunny when we go out and peeing down when we are in. No wonder the hills are so green and lush, so many cows and sheep. only seen one pig however - plastic. Bacon rolls are still available however, which is helpful as eating out is more difficult round here..

Only one pub in the village, Retired Person bravely gave it a go but someone spoke to him, so he has his beer safely at home since then.

Home is one of those low, squatting, stone shoe-boxes linked along the winding roads, ubiquitous round here. Maybe it is the wind, thankfully this one has been extended out back, usually they look very small and ....grumpy.

The fishing boats were safe in the tiny harbour and were soon out again after the storm pulling in the orange buoys attached to lobster pots. We haven't eaten out in the village so I don't know if they are on the menu, maybe scampi and chips.
Wigtown is Scotland's National Book Town
There are 15 second hand book shops they claim, tho one sells just old [heritage] newspapers.

The Book Shop, confidently named, had a double stack of books as pillars at the entrance. But like The Creaking Shelves it didn't seem to be doing much business, the Shelves is selling up, but RP helped out by buying two airplane model kits there [to go above his model railway] so maybe they will survive a little longer.

Most of the book shops seemed to make most from their cafes, Readinglasses claimed to be the last specialist women's bookshop left in the UK.

Some how i couldn't bring myself to go in, I knew I wasn't going to buy anything from any of them. Waterstones and Amazon + the kindle have already taken my money.


2 comments:

carol said...

The wicker man doesn't look much like the orifinal does he? Bit too skinny and balletic!

Glad you gave Wiggers a try. Their book festival begins now and looks to be quite good. When the idea for a Scottish booktown was mooted and Wigtown won all the shops started selling books to get the European aid. Even the butcher! Locals grumble because now all they can buy there is books and there are no 'real' shops. Locals are never grateful! It was almost a ghost town before the books marched in. Too off the track; nowt for the tourists.

Eating out in Scotland is still a trial.

Gillian said...

Readinglasses is such a delightfully whimsical name for a bookshop with wymen in mind. I wonder if anyone has URLed it for the future.
Glad you had some fine weather. We are "en France maintenant" and it has been the same, but two or three degrees higher.
Cheers Gillian