Saturday 29 May 2010

Sunshine and Waterfalls



It was great weather in Glasgow recently and I managed to get out of my workshop and enjoy some nearby walks. The city has a great selection of parks and I visited Linn Park in Glasgow's Southside. I've lived in Glasgow all my life but I've ever been before and it was massive: it has an equestrian centre and even a golf course in it! There was loads of large meadows and a lovely waterfall beside an iron bridge. I will definitely be back as it felt like we were in the countryside.

A few days later we went walking along the Falls of the Clyde, just outside Glasgow beside New Lanark which is a world heritage site. The village is famous as being the creation of Robert Owen who was a mill manager who transformed life for the the workers of New Lanark with ideas and opportunities which were years ahead of their time. Child labour and corporal punishment were banned, and the villagers were provided with decent homes, schools and evening classes, free health care, and affordable food. Many of his ideas are relevant today, especially with all the news stories about child labour in different parts of the world. Here is a great quote by Robert Owen:

'What ideas individuals may attach to the term 'Millennium' I know not; but I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold: and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal'.

The walk around the Fall of the Clyde was good because it is a substantial afternoon trek but not too strenuous like climbing a munro. The highlights of the walk were catching a glimpse of a wild deer which crashed through the woodland and having a look at the nesting peregrine falcons.

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