We have found this cute cluster at Raspberry Road Designs and we thought it was perfect to wish you a boo-tiful Halloween with a cup of our…

My turn to post while my sweet Kia is trying to get rid of an headache by having a hot bath. It is the end of a long, tiring but happy weekend. On Friday night Kia and I have been at a bar in Glasgow for a goodbye drink with a colleague of mine that is going back home in Spain. On Saturday, we had brunch with some of my colleagues at a new espresso bar that has recently opened here in Paisley. Afterwards, since it was a nice, chilly, but sunny day, we walked around a bit, headed to Barshaw Park. Today was gray and cloudy, so we took some time to run some errands.

Going back to the Glaswegian topic in our previous entry, you can listen to an audio version of a Glaswegian application on the BBC website, and maybe also listen to this poem. We can understand something, but not all of it. What about you? Probably for an English speaker the comprehension can be easier...

We will leave you with 5 handy Glaswegian phrases:

1. A haufanahauf, anpronto - Please refresh me with a small whisky and a beer chaser, when it is convenient.
2. C'moangitaff - It is time for us to exit this mode of public transport.
3. Awa'anbileyerheid yabamye - I must take exception to the position you are taking, my dear chap.
4. Whitsawra fussaboot? - I can't see why you fail to see reason on this matter.
5. Gonnaegeeze maginger ower, yanugget - Kindly pass me my carbonated beverage, old boy.
 
Ok, maybe not so handy, LOL!

It's time for the third part of the Paisley tour. Some people expect a town hall to be full of offices, the place where the council is based, but Paisley Town Hall is a collection of meeting rooms and spaces for dances, weddings, and concerts. It's a magnificent example of Victorian architecture situated in the heart of this historic town. It was given to the town by the Clark family, the owners of the Anchor thread mill, one of the two big mill owning families in Paisley.

In response, their main competitor in the production of thread in the town, Sir Peter Coats, funded the building of the equally magnificent Paisley Museum and Library.

These, and many other remarkably grand buildings in Paisley, testify to the power, influence and success of the textile industry in the town.

Still loving listening to Queen’s music, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of our all time fave! What about you? Do you like them? Do you have a favorite song?

Luckily sometimes we are blessed with blue skies even here in rainy Scotland! Obviously, it doesn’t last long…

Today we have spent a very nice day in Glasgow, at Kelvingrove Park and the Botanic Garden.

It has been sunny, slightly chilly, but overall enjoyable. We have walked around, enjoyed the sun sitting on a bench for a few minutes, and also taken tons of pictures.

We’ve tried to take some nice picture of the squirrels. We brought some nuts with us, since last week we’d seen some kids giving nuts to the squirrels. Some squirrels were very cautious and diffident, but a couple of them came to take nuts right from our hand.

While during Spring and Summer we are not supposed to help wildlife, during Autumn and Winter it is allowed to feed them a little something (obviously proper food, like nuts and fruit, not human junk food) to help them through the hard times.

We don’t remember if we have already told you that when we were living in the USA we had some squirrels who came into our apartment during the night and tasted a freshly baked cake. We also used to have a bowl full of M&M’s on the counter, and some nights we could hear some rolling noises. After a couple of nights we found out it was some chipmunks who found access to our apartment and tried to steal our sweets.

Shall we continue our Paisley tour? Next stop: the top of Paisley Abbey Bell Tower.

Once a year, during Doors Open Day, the tower is open to the public for only 50 pence. The view from the tower is gorgeous!

The Town Hall.

All the towers of Paisley skyline.

Anchor Mill building, our hill, and the waterfall where we usually see ducks and swans and a grey heron.

The Town Hall and Piazza Shopping Center. We could also see our condo and Saucel Hill (our hill)…

In order to arrive on the top of the tower, you have to climb up 200 narrow and badly enlightened steps, so if you suffer from claustrophobia, I wouldn’t go if I were you...

Ops, it’s later than we thought and we better get ready for bed. At the moment, Flickr is sucking up all our on-line time. It’s a nice way to know what people think about our photos and Zeno and I like the fact that there are many gorgeous shots there which inspire us. But all this group thing is driving us crazy. We will blog-hop tomorrow. Sweet dreams!

We had a fabulous weekend, full of oh-ing and ah-ing! We saw three gorgeous rainbows (one was a double one), a lot of swans and ducks, many adorable squirrels chasing each other at the park…

We also happened to see (from far away) a bird that we’ve never seen before: a goosander (that seems to be called "smergo", in Italian).

We could see the full moon from our bedroom window lulling us to sleep. Oh, and we also had the visit of three ladybugs. How lucky are we?! LOL!

Wherever you are, in blazing sunshine or pouring rain, we hope you are enjoying your day! Waving a bit of Autumn magic to you…

I’ve started writing this entry a couple of nights ago to take some time off my work, since also this week I brought home some work to do.

Quite often, when we show some nice photos of Paisley, there are people who find it hard to believe they were actually taken in Paisley. Even though somebody has a bad opinion of this town, it has much to offer and Kia and I would like to share with you some nice views in the next few entries.

Our tour of Paisley during the Doors Open Day (three weeks ago) started with Paisley Abbey. The Abbey is an example of Gothic architecture, dating to the 12th century. It was the burial place of many Scottish Kings during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

On this special occasion, the main door on the façade was open.

The interior is splendid, especially on a sunny day, with the light pouring in from every window.

It contains a sumptuous gallery of 25 stained glass windows by 15 different artists, mostly from 1870 to 1914, four from 1930s.

We enjoyed walking around looking at the sculptures, architecture, and small details.

In the Abbey, on a wall, we noticed a plate dedicated to John Witherspoon.

Since I am a curious person I did a little research to find out more about this man. Here is what I’ve learned.

John Witherspoon was born at Gifford, in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1723. He attended the Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the University to study divinity. Witherspoon was opposed to the Jacobite rising of 1745-46 and following the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Falkirk in 1746, he was briefly imprisoned at Doune Castle. Kia and I have visited Doune Castle at the beginning of August during our tour of Scottish Castles.

John Witherspoon became a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) minister at Beith, Ayrshire, and he was there from 1745 to 1758. From 1758 to 1768, he was minister of the Laigh kirk, here in Paisley (Low Kirk). At the urging of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, whom he met in Paisley, he finally accepted another invitation (he had turned it down in 1766) to become President and head professor of the small Presbyterian College of New Jersey in Princeton, and he and his family emigrated to New Jersey in 1768, where he took up the position of sixth President of the college which was later to become Princeton University.

As a native Scotsman, long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon soon came to support the Revolution, joining the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. His 1776 sermon "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" was published in many editions and he was elected to the Continental Congress as part of the New Jersey delegation and, in July 1776, voted for the Resolution for Independence. Witherspoon served in Congress from June 1776 until November 1782 and became one of its most influential members and a workhorse of prodigious energy. He died in 1794 on his farm Tusculum, just outside of Princeton, and is buried in the Princeton Cemetery.

Since John Witherspoon has been here in Paisley for so many years, I tried to learn something about the Laigh Kirk. It was founded in 1738 as a response to the growing population in the town, and as a consequence of the dilapidated state of Paisley Abbey. The original Laigh Kirk building was located in New Street; and the building is now used as the Paisley Arts Centre.

In 1820, due to the ever growing size of the congregation, the Laigh Kirk moved to a new building on George Street. The site is now occupied by St George's Court flats.

The Laigh Kirk continued to grow and expand, as did Paisley, and to meet these demands a new congregation was seeded by the Laigh on Neilston Road, the South Church. The events of the Disruption of 1843 saw this sister congregation leave the Church of Scotland and join the new Free Church of Scotland. It would be over 140 years before these two halves became whole again, with the reunion of the two congregations in 1985. The name Laigh Kirk was re-established in Paisley and continues to serve the Parish faithfully from its Causeyside Street base.

I know, I have probably bored you to death. As an happy ending I just want to say that yesterday night my sweet Kia and I have seen Race to Witch Mountain on DVD. It’s a funny movie for the whole family and I recommend it, in case you’ve not seen it yet.Good night and sweet dreams!