Hello, my name is Joss.Kerry.Govan 1890s.Sometimes you just need a lift.Bridge from Hong Kong to Macau.Kingfisher.Kinderdijk, Netherlands.Olympic National Park.I’m getting bored waiting!Panda.Pawalan, Philippines.I’m as happy as a human in… Oh, sorry, it’s Sunday, I can’t say it.Queensferry 1887.Golden Eagle, I think.Tala Reservoir, Borders.Hi, Mum.Culross, Fife.MoooooooooooBlaze fae Skye. (Hopefully this time.)Our bridge at night.OK tired now, I’m going to have a sleep on Mum.
Well, Tris, I’m sure it’s Blaze but the photo seems to have been taken in Glencoe. I’m fairly sure that’s Gearr Aonach and Aonach Dubh (two of the Three Sisters) in the background. Good collection of pics, as always – well done!
lovely as ever. Though I think the Govan picture is actually 2090 if we don’t get out of this fetid union! Thanks for the elephants and the panda. I wonder if we’ll be hearing the patter of tiny panda paws soon in Edinburgh? And no not me on a visit.
As for the bored orang always good to fit in a wee bit stretching when you have a moment…
Someone I follow on Twitter puts up these pics form time to time, Conan. Next time I see one of them, I’ll send you his details. Can’t remember who he/she is offhand.
Congratulations on the beautiful new bridge! I understand that the Queen and Prince Philip will be on hand for the official opening, as they were in 1964 for the previous road bridge.
And speaking of Queens, the old Queensferry picture would be located at one end of the bridge(s)?
Queensferry refers to 11th century Queen Margaret, Queen Consort to King Malcom III……if memory serves. 😉
I was there too Danny. It was a very foggy day, nobody could actually see the bridge! Phil and Liz are on one of the ferries that the road bridge replaced. My grandfather was one of the crew. Incidentally men from Queensferry (the Ferry) are called Ferry men. My grandfather was a ferryman squared.
The old photo was taken in the High St of the Ferry about half a mile away from where the the future bridge would start.
Fascinating story Conan! Your grandfather was part of a long tradition.
Nice to know the Queensferry location. I was surprised that Philip would be there. I thought he had pretty much retired from public life.
Speaking of fog and suspension bridges and ferry boats reminds me of my first visit to California’s Golden Gate Bridge…..the bridge that spans the “Golden Gate,” the entrance to San Francisco Bay from the Pacific, which replaced a ferry that had long operated at that location to avoid a lengthy (maybe 50 mile) trip around the bay to get to northern California from the city of San Francisco on the peninsula. A cold Pacific current keeps San Francisco cold and foggy, and a cold fog often rolls in and obscures the bridge. The winds and weather in the Golden Gate probably rival what Scottish bridges have to stand up to. (Mark Twain once said the the coldest winter he ever endured was during a summer that he spent in San Francisco.) I was on a bus tour of the city and was looking forward to shooting a picture of the tops of the towers of the bridge gleaming in the sun, with the lower parts of the towers and roadway invisible in a fog bank that had just rolled in. Great scenic view! Sadly, the bus driver just announced that the bridge was obscured by fog and we would move on without stopping. :-((
Tris….I like that thick fog picture too. It might seem odd that the most beautiful bridge in America is painted a bright red-orange color. One story is that the original lead-based primer coat in 1937 was that color and people just liked it and kept it. Others say that the color was deliberately chosen as a way to make the bridge more visible in fog. I’m not sure it really helps that much for the San Francisco fog though. 😉
BTW……the bridge replaced a ferry operation across the Golden Gate that had been in operation since 1820.
Tris….I’m not a native of the area, but I think that the water temperature of the cold Pacific current and the wind patterns through the Golden Gate make the fog banks particularly dense around the bridge. As you see in the lights of the night picture, the downtown area of the city is quite a little distance south of the bridge. I’ve had a wonderful time strolling through the (not too thick) early evening fog at the wharf (with the fog horns going constantly), the cool damp air on my face, munching on a loaf of San Francisco sour dough bread and a small container of shrimp in my hand. Then a cable car ride up to Chinatown…….or sinful North Beach…….and you have an almost perfect urban environment that just wouldn’t be the same without the chill and the fog and the foghorns. Compared with the ugly urban sprawl of Los Angeles (notwithstanding a warmer ocean and sunny warm beaches,) San Francisco might as well be on another planet, instead of the same state.
The city was rebuilt after being mostly destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, and is in a beautiful location on a peninsula. (I can’t imagine how much money it would take to LIVE in the city in one of those little 1906 houses.) The urban landscape until the 1960’s was free of ugly skyscrapers due to earthquake restrictions on building height. Then they decided they knew how to build tall buildings that could withstand earthquakes, and San Francisco became a more typical jumble of skyscrapers. Still better than the sprawling L.A. skyline though.
We once met two elderly ladies from San Francisco (they were in their 80s) on a cross channel hovercraft from Calais. We helped them with their luggage onto the London-bound train and enjoyed the journey listening to them talk about California and SF. We exchanged addresses and then Christmas cards for a few years, while they pressed invitations on us to visit… after a while the cards stopped, and I have to assume that they had died.
If you ever do find yourself in California, don’t waste your time in Los Angeles. Head north, to the city by the bay. Where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars, you could definitely leave your heart in San Francisco.
With water on three sides, pretty much every one of the impossibly steep hills of San Francisco offers views of vast expanses of sky and water, with the natural beauty of Marin County across the Golden Gate. The last big earthquake in the 1980’s knocked down an entire freeway loop on the bay side, and it was never rebuilt, the better to provide views of the water. I love to wind up the narrow streets to the tops of the hills and take in the views. The view of the bay and Alcatraz from Telegraph Hill is a favorite. Climbing the grades of the hills can be a challenge, and you can try to negotiate the switchbacks of Lombard Street……the crookedest street in America. And Chinatown and North Beach and Fisherman’s wharf, and some of the finest restaurants in America. A city famously liberal and tolerant of alternate lifestyles, right wing fanatics love to rail against “San Francisco values.” Nothing not to love about San Francisco….unless you’re a fanatical right wing Republican.
Lombard Street:
San Francisco had to be rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake. I Love those houses on the hills. Can’t imagine how much money you would have to have to own one though. Imagine the most expensive house you can, then maybe multiply by two or three if you want a house in SF on a hill with a view of the bay (or the ocean.)
It’s lovely. I shall. Thanks for the photos… It’s not always foggy!
I should perhaps mention that the two old ladies we met were incredibly kind to me, as I was suffering from a severe bout of mal de mer on what was a terribly rough crossing. That’s how we got talking. Once on dry land, I was fine and able to help them, repaying their kindness to a sick boy.
I may have mentioned it before and if so put it down to another senior moment.
During the previous bridge opening, I was in Exeter listening to Richard Dimbleby commentating and suddenly thought ‘ he’s got good earsight! ‘.
Having just mentioned the Historic Forth rail Bridge adjacent, and that Her Maj had just opened the new Forth Road Bridge, He announced as I remember; ” And I can hear the navy ships hooting on the Clyde “.
Great story John! While it was long before my time, I’ve seen video clips of Richard Dimbleby hosting the European side of the first transatlantic television show relayed by the “Telstar” communications satellite in 1962. On the American side, we had Walter Cronkite….as famous in his time in America as Dinbleby in the UK. The show opened with a split screen of the State of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Various spots in America were shown from the Statue of Liberty in the east to the Golden Gate Bridge in the west, with lots of places between including the presidential faces on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and a John F. Kennedy press conference in Washington. DC. From the European side of the broadcast, I’ve read that Dimbleby was quite a hit in America.
I’m looking forward to being on the new bridge. It opens this coming week, but we’ll give it a few days to settle in before Munguin makes a procession over it.
Munguin was asked to open it, but he had to wash his hair that day… so they got those people from London to do it. instead.
Lovely pics again Tris, thanks. That road looks fun, but hope they don´t get too much coastal erosion. I particularly love the elephants, one of my favourite animals. The new bridge is stunning too.
This week´s highlight for me was the kingfisher – I spent yesterday afternoon designing and spinning a yarn inspired by a kingfisher diving. I was quite pleased with it too, but the original is much better! Do you mind if I copy your pic for my spinning portfolio? I need to show the inspiration for the yarn.
Munguin, with the keys to the padlock on the drink’s cabinet and the biscuit tin, giving something away for nothing? I don’t believe it. I think you’ve exceeded your authority and it will all end in tears, young man!
Thanks, Tris. I have saved the picture under the title KingMunguin – hope he approves 🙂
By the way, would you like a picture of the yarn once I’ve finished it? (just to see what you help to inspire).
That photograph of the new bridge is spectacular. I’d imagine a picture that captured all three bridges in their splendour would blow away any other set of bridges? Tho’, as a single bridge the one in San Francisco is iconic, to say the least.
Fog on the Forth? Might make a dramatic picture.
I knew Hong Kong and Macau were separate, but that is some huge piece of civil engineering.
Loved the Kingfisher too. Come to think of it, my favourite picture out of this weeks batch.
Hi dc……They started imagining a bridge to span San Francisco’s Golden Gate as early as 1870. They actually got serious about a design after WWI. With early twentieth century technology, the span was at first thought to be too long for a pure suspension bridge (like the Forth road bridge,) and too massive for a cantilever design (like the Forth railroad bridge.) So we have an early engineering concept of what the Golden Gate Bridge would have looked like if it had actually been built as a combination of the two designs. It would have been….well…….interesting……but lacking something in the aesthetics. 😉
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Well, Tris, I’m sure it’s Blaze but the photo seems to have been taken in Glencoe. I’m fairly sure that’s Gearr Aonach and Aonach Dubh (two of the Three Sisters) in the background. Good collection of pics, as always – well done!
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Thanks, Andi. I’m pretty sure Blaze has a pile of double lookalikes…
They are all pretty good looking though, don;t you think?
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lovely as ever. Though I think the Govan picture is actually 2090 if we don’t get out of this fetid union! Thanks for the elephants and the panda. I wonder if we’ll be hearing the patter of tiny panda paws soon in Edinburgh? And no not me on a visit.
As for the bored orang always good to fit in a wee bit stretching when you have a moment…
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Well, stretching is good for you!
I’m hoping for good news about the Panda in Edinburgh.
Munguin might even visit!
Please get us out of the union by 2021 at the latest.
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Lovely photos. Must have been confusing when everything was black and white…
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Well, to be fair there were many shades of grey as well…
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Never seen that photo of the ferry before Tris. Where did you find it?
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Someone I follow on Twitter puts up these pics form time to time, Conan. Next time I see one of them, I’ll send you his details. Can’t remember who he/she is offhand.
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@YoorWullie ?
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Yer a genius, Jim.
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I’ve said before, but I’m going to say it again, I love oor Bridge!
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Best bridge in the world 🙂
Well, OK, maybe not, but it is lovely. Can’t wait to use it.
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Congratulations on the beautiful new bridge! I understand that the Queen and Prince Philip will be on hand for the official opening, as they were in 1964 for the previous road bridge.
And speaking of Queens, the old Queensferry picture would be located at one end of the bridge(s)?
Queensferry refers to 11th century Queen Margaret, Queen Consort to King Malcom III……if memory serves. 😉
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I was there too Danny. It was a very foggy day, nobody could actually see the bridge! Phil and Liz are on one of the ferries that the road bridge replaced. My grandfather was one of the crew. Incidentally men from Queensferry (the Ferry) are called Ferry men. My grandfather was a ferryman squared.
The old photo was taken in the High St of the Ferry about half a mile away from where the the future bridge would start.
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Yeah ! Conan come from a long line of Ferrymen no surprise
there.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQhGYrkLBc8xHFY4cz3BW9NvjByCn_lql4KPF2J2R7hHI5N7h9q9g
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Niko….
Q: Do you know what a river does when the temperature gets really really cold?
A: The River Styx!
*RIMSHOT*
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HO hum… and there was me thinking a week might go by without you being nasty to Conan… Fat chance.
I’m gonna hafta report you to Mr Brownlie.
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It’s OK Tris, I’m waiting for him. He better have the right fare…
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Fascinating story Conan! Your grandfather was part of a long tradition.
Nice to know the Queensferry location. I was surprised that Philip would be there. I thought he had pretty much retired from public life.
Speaking of fog and suspension bridges and ferry boats reminds me of my first visit to California’s Golden Gate Bridge…..the bridge that spans the “Golden Gate,” the entrance to San Francisco Bay from the Pacific, which replaced a ferry that had long operated at that location to avoid a lengthy (maybe 50 mile) trip around the bay to get to northern California from the city of San Francisco on the peninsula. A cold Pacific current keeps San Francisco cold and foggy, and a cold fog often rolls in and obscures the bridge. The winds and weather in the Golden Gate probably rival what Scottish bridges have to stand up to. (Mark Twain once said the the coldest winter he ever endured was during a summer that he spent in San Francisco.) I was on a bus tour of the city and was looking forward to shooting a picture of the tops of the towers of the bridge gleaming in the sun, with the lower parts of the towers and roadway invisible in a fog bank that had just rolled in. Great scenic view! Sadly, the bus driver just announced that the bridge was obscured by fog and we would move on without stopping. :-((
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It’s pretty spectacular too…
Is the whole town foggy, or is it just over the water?
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I like that one….
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Tris….I like that thick fog picture too. It might seem odd that the most beautiful bridge in America is painted a bright red-orange color. One story is that the original lead-based primer coat in 1937 was that color and people just liked it and kept it. Others say that the color was deliberately chosen as a way to make the bridge more visible in fog. I’m not sure it really helps that much for the San Francisco fog though. 😉
BTW……the bridge replaced a ferry operation across the Golden Gate that had been in operation since 1820.
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Tris….I’m not a native of the area, but I think that the water temperature of the cold Pacific current and the wind patterns through the Golden Gate make the fog banks particularly dense around the bridge. As you see in the lights of the night picture, the downtown area of the city is quite a little distance south of the bridge. I’ve had a wonderful time strolling through the (not too thick) early evening fog at the wharf (with the fog horns going constantly), the cool damp air on my face, munching on a loaf of San Francisco sour dough bread and a small container of shrimp in my hand. Then a cable car ride up to Chinatown…….or sinful North Beach…….and you have an almost perfect urban environment that just wouldn’t be the same without the chill and the fog and the foghorns. Compared with the ugly urban sprawl of Los Angeles (notwithstanding a warmer ocean and sunny warm beaches,) San Francisco might as well be on another planet, instead of the same state.
The city was rebuilt after being mostly destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, and is in a beautiful location on a peninsula. (I can’t imagine how much money it would take to LIVE in the city in one of those little 1906 houses.) The urban landscape until the 1960’s was free of ugly skyscrapers due to earthquake restrictions on building height. Then they decided they knew how to build tall buildings that could withstand earthquakes, and San Francisco became a more typical jumble of skyscrapers. Still better than the sprawling L.A. skyline though.
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Sounds fun, Danny.
We once met two elderly ladies from San Francisco (they were in their 80s) on a cross channel hovercraft from Calais. We helped them with their luggage onto the London-bound train and enjoyed the journey listening to them talk about California and SF. We exchanged addresses and then Christmas cards for a few years, while they pressed invitations on us to visit… after a while the cards stopped, and I have to assume that they had died.
I definitely should have gone…
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Tris…..What a sweet story!
If you ever do find yourself in California, don’t waste your time in Los Angeles. Head north, to the city by the bay. Where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars, you could definitely leave your heart in San Francisco.
With water on three sides, pretty much every one of the impossibly steep hills of San Francisco offers views of vast expanses of sky and water, with the natural beauty of Marin County across the Golden Gate. The last big earthquake in the 1980’s knocked down an entire freeway loop on the bay side, and it was never rebuilt, the better to provide views of the water. I love to wind up the narrow streets to the tops of the hills and take in the views. The view of the bay and Alcatraz from Telegraph Hill is a favorite. Climbing the grades of the hills can be a challenge, and you can try to negotiate the switchbacks of Lombard Street……the crookedest street in America. And Chinatown and North Beach and Fisherman’s wharf, and some of the finest restaurants in America. A city famously liberal and tolerant of alternate lifestyles, right wing fanatics love to rail against “San Francisco values.” Nothing not to love about San Francisco….unless you’re a fanatical right wing Republican.
Lombard Street:
San Francisco had to be rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake. I Love those houses on the hills. Can’t imagine how much money you would have to have to own one though. Imagine the most expensive house you can, then maybe multiply by two or three if you want a house in SF on a hill with a view of the bay (or the ocean.)
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It’s lovely. I shall. Thanks for the photos… It’s not always foggy!
I should perhaps mention that the two old ladies we met were incredibly kind to me, as I was suffering from a severe bout of mal de mer on what was a terribly rough crossing. That’s how we got talking. Once on dry land, I was fine and able to help them, repaying their kindness to a sick boy.
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Interesting, Conan.
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There was a small fleet of RN ships underneath it that nobody knew were there…
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Scottish weather, huh!
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I may have mentioned it before and if so put it down to another senior moment.
During the previous bridge opening, I was in Exeter listening to Richard Dimbleby commentating and suddenly thought ‘ he’s got good earsight! ‘.
Having just mentioned the Historic Forth rail Bridge adjacent, and that Her Maj had just opened the new Forth Road Bridge, He announced as I remember; ” And I can hear the navy ships hooting on the Clyde “.
Typical Dicky Bumblebee, you just gotta loveim.
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Great story John! While it was long before my time, I’ve seen video clips of Richard Dimbleby hosting the European side of the first transatlantic television show relayed by the “Telstar” communications satellite in 1962. On the American side, we had Walter Cronkite….as famous in his time in America as Dinbleby in the UK. The show opened with a split screen of the State of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Various spots in America were shown from the Statue of Liberty in the east to the Golden Gate Bridge in the west, with lots of places between including the presidential faces on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and a John F. Kennedy press conference in Washington. DC. From the European side of the broadcast, I’ve read that Dimbleby was quite a hit in America.
http://www.history.com/news/the-birth-of-satellite-tv-50-years-ago
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LOL. No, you didn’t mention it before.
The good old BBC and the Dynasty Dumblebubble.
🙂
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Indeed, Danny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Queensferry
I’m looking forward to being on the new bridge. It opens this coming week, but we’ll give it a few days to settle in before Munguin makes a procession over it.
Munguin was asked to open it, but he had to wash his hair that day… so they got those people from London to do it. instead.
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The London folks probably had fewer demands on their time. 😉
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Apparently they are on their holidays…. but given that they have 8 weeks or so, I guess they can fill in for the furry one for just one afternoon.
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Lovely pics again Tris, thanks. That road looks fun, but hope they don´t get too much coastal erosion. I particularly love the elephants, one of my favourite animals. The new bridge is stunning too.
This week´s highlight for me was the kingfisher – I spent yesterday afternoon designing and spinning a yarn inspired by a kingfisher diving. I was quite pleased with it too, but the original is much better! Do you mind if I copy your pic for my spinning portfolio? I need to show the inspiration for the yarn.
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Glad you liked them Sue.
The pic of the kingfisher doesn’t belong to me. I found it somewhere on the net, but in any case, I’m delighted that you got some inspiration from it.
As far as Munguin is concerned, he’s happy for any pics on here to be reused… but we’d stress that he doesn’t own most of them.
I love elephants too. Their interactions are so like ours.
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Munguin, with the keys to the padlock on the drink’s cabinet and the biscuit tin, giving something away for nothing? I don’t believe it. I think you’ve exceeded your authority and it will all end in tears, young man!
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I’m already on the carpet, John. Half wages for the next 3 months!
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Thanks, Tris. I have saved the picture under the title KingMunguin – hope he approves 🙂
By the way, would you like a picture of the yarn once I’ve finished it? (just to see what you help to inspire).
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We’d love it, Sue…. It can go on Soppy Sunday. 🙂
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That photograph of the new bridge is spectacular. I’d imagine a picture that captured all three bridges in their splendour would blow away any other set of bridges? Tho’, as a single bridge the one in San Francisco is iconic, to say the least.
Fog on the Forth? Might make a dramatic picture.
I knew Hong Kong and Macau were separate, but that is some huge piece of civil engineering.
Loved the Kingfisher too. Come to think of it, my favourite picture out of this weeks batch.
Soppy Sunday always cheers me up.
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Hi dc……They started imagining a bridge to span San Francisco’s Golden Gate as early as 1870. They actually got serious about a design after WWI. With early twentieth century technology, the span was at first thought to be too long for a pure suspension bridge (like the Forth road bridge,) and too massive for a cantilever design (like the Forth railroad bridge.) So we have an early engineering concept of what the Golden Gate Bridge would have looked like if it had actually been built as a combination of the two designs. It would have been….well…….interesting……but lacking something in the aesthetics. 😉
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I’ve seen fog on the Forth (as I’m sure many have) and yes, it would make a good picture.
Glad you enjoyed, Douglas.
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