Glasgow spring

We're in the full bloom of spring here in Glasgow. Finally.

Flowers have been popping up for a month, and now the trees have grudgingly begun to sprout leaves. Over the past several weeks we've been spending more time outdoors — it's getting progressively warmer, drier, and sunnier. Since our beloved dog, Mattie, passed away last autumn I haven't been out quite as much as I have been in the past.

Life without a dog has made me more sedentary, and that's something I've gotta correct. So I've been doing some wandering lately, occasionally capturing a few springtime photos.

A lovely footbridge over the River Clyde. Built in 1856, St. Andrew's Suspension Bridge replaced a busy ferry boat used by factory workers.

As I noted last year, springtime here

is a slow burn, teasing, tempting, flashing a smile and demurely lowering her eyes. Spring has been tantalizing us, seducing us, for weeks. Until the last few days, she's mostly been raising her petticoat and exposing her ankles. Now, it seems, she's ready for her miniskirt.

Amidst the gardens of Pollock House.

Jackson got his face painted at the vet school's annual "rodeo." It was supposed to be a dinosaur, but looks more like a crocodile.

A bit of fireman beefcake helping the wee ones spray the hoses at the rodeo. Water is Scotland's most abundant natural resource.

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of this building, the old Templeton Carpet Factory, and the trees were barren.

Adjacent to the Templeton Carpet Factory are these drying poles on the Glasgow Green. Going back to medieval times, the Freemen of Glasgow hold the right to dry clothing on the Green. These drying poles were installed in Victorian times, and used regularly into the 1970s.

The mute swans along our stretch of the Forth & Clyde canal are back to their egg laying. Hopefully, however, they'll have more success than last year.

Flowers bloom in front of the University of Glasgow's main campus.

After the long Scottish winter of rain and dark, spring can never come soon enough. Of course, as I write this it's currently hailing outside. And earlier this week, we actually had a short burst of snow.

Some of you gentle readers have been enjoying spring for months now. We're inching along, bloom by bloom.