Kelvinbridge

I was back for a few hours today in my old stamping ground around Kelvinbridge, of which this is a typical scene. Great Western Road runs over the bridge spanning what was a very turbulent and rushing River Kelvin today, leading down to the former Lansdowne Church with its delicate steeple and beyond that St Mary's Cathedral, the spiritual home of several of my friends and contacts real and virtual. In the foreground, a crossing patrol shepherds a group of people across the busy road, as it's about 3.30pm and that is when schools seem to escape these days.  The sky is blue, but these towering white cumulus perhaps give some indication that in a couple of hours, when we emerge from the Underground - or as a Glasgwegian I'm accustomed to call it, the Subway - after a trip into the city centre, it will again be pouring with rain.

We'd been having lunch in our usual meeting place, the Italian restaurant that was formerly La Parmigiana and is now transformed from the red carpet and linen tablecloths of its previous incarnation into the gleaming white and stripped wood of La Lanterna. Happily the food was excellent - though I'd have preferred the music to be quieter.

This is such a good bit of Glasgow - vibrant, untidy, with a fantastic mix of independent shops. And the trees looked wonderful - autumn in the city.