Glorious

It was a glorious blue sky day here in the west. Carlos ended up taking the day off as we had some stuff to sort out with his flat which should hopefully have a new tenant by the weekend after lying empty up for sale for 6 months.

Once we'd finished in Paisley we went for a coffee at Erskine garden centre and drove home over the back roads to maximise blipportunities for me. This was taken from the top of the hill between Langbank and Finlaystone and was always one of my favourite views when I lived in Finlaystone Estate.

On the right of the picture you have Cardross foremost and Helensburgh then all the hills beyond Gare Loch, Loch Long and Loch Goil. I'm not very good with the hills, I can't name them, even from a distance I can never tell which one is the Cobbler but I dug out an old map of the Firth of Clyde which belonged to my grandparents to learn the names of the lochs and might also try and learn the hills and glens too. It would be no use for roads though as it is a "Bartholomews revised half inch contoured map", it cost 5 shillings and six pence and bears the seal " by appointment to the late King George V". I'm guessing this means it was printed at some time in 1936 but I'm not entirely sure. Both my grandparents would have been 16 at that time and I know they were keen cyclists who used the passenger steamers that criss-crossed the Clyde at that time to explore the Highways and byways of Renfrewshire, Kintyre, Argyll and Bute.

Just found a guide to dating Bartholomews maps and lost half an hour, mine is definitely 1936-1943 as it bears reference to both the old system that had sheet numbers for Scotland and England separately and the new 62 sheet system that covers Great Britain. Fascinating eh?