A walk on the wild side

What have gardens, nuclear missiles, Glasgow knives and the Caribbean got in common? Today all four crossed our paths in one form or the other.
 
 
It started off innocently enough. A long drive to Benmore botanical gardens on the   remote Cowal peninsula off the west coast of Scotland.
 
Its covers 50 acres of steep mountainside and is not easily accessible. First task on arrival – as the midge’s tucked in- is the purchase of midge spray, and  head nets.
 
 
But it was worth it to see the enormous vision people must have had in the past to create such an enchanting, mountainside garden. Its part of the Royal Edinburgh Botanics a and employs 12 full time gardeners
 
On the return journey we took a wrong turning  (my navigation) and end up on a narrow, unmarked road with steep mountains on one side and a deep loch on the other.
 
Suddenly we turn a corner and find ourselves alongside a  military base, the home of the Trident missiles where our nuclear weapons are stored.
 
Later I learn that if even a bird lands on the high-wired fencing it sets off alarms.
 
Back to PJ Kitchen run by Jo Paul a Caribbean in Helensburgh. His father came from Dominica and we exchange stories about his homeland and the arrival of the Chinese investing huge sums of money in this poor tropical island and we wonder why?
 
He grew up in Glasgow, a city as far removed from his tropical homeland as you could ever find.
Yes it was difficult. He remembers one day he got stopped in the street by a young Glaswegian who pulled back his jacket to reveal a butchers knife.
 “What school do you go to?”
 
“I just burst out laughing. I thought he was going to pick a fight with me because of my colour but no he just wanted to know if I was a Catholic of a Protestant.”
 
He gave the “wrong” answer and had to run for his life.
 
 

So one way and another it’s been a walk on the wild side.