Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  I hope 2011 is an improvement over its predecessor.

This time of year has special significance to me.  My parents were from Scotland, where New Year celebrations are taken very seriously - it is called Hogmanay and you can read about it here. Every Hogmanay my parents hosted a party which began at midnight; much of New Year's Eve was spent cleaning the house before the party (a custom which I understand is also followed by the Chinese).  The post-party clean-up would occur once people had recovered from the festivities.  January is a month of looking forward: the nights begin to shorten again after the dark months of November and December, and the Christmas break is over.  I've done very little other than eat and drink too much this Christmas as I have been unwell, but the enforced break has allowed me to recharge my batteries; I'm even looking forward to getting back to work next week.

During 2011, I intend to continue posting from time to time on pencils and pens, with the occasional foray into typewriters and other subjects.  I intend to post one or two typecasts from the Olympia SM3 once I can work out how to darken the text on scans, or obtain a replacement ribbon.  There are some pencils I have yet to try - still no Blackwings or Dixon Ticonderogas here for example, though the latter is now available at Cult Pens - so perhaps I can get my hands on those, even with the rise in VAT due on Tuesday.

So, here's to the new year, and a new decade in stationery.  Again, Happy New Year!

Bowling down the Clyde in the Comet's wake.

From Erskine we crossed to the north bank of the Clyde yet again. In the mid distance, Dumbarton Rock stood out darkly against the snowy mountains of Argyll beyond.

We were bound for Bowling at the entrance to the Forth and Clyde canal. The canal opened in 1790. We had to keep a high ferry angle as the ebb tide was fair bowling us along.

There are two sea lock gates but this one is no longer

Life and death on the Clyde.

From the former Yarrow's shipyard at Scotstoun we paddled to Renfrew on the south bank. This is one of the oldest ferry points on the Clyde. Higher up the river we had already encountered the old chain driven "Renfrew", which served the route as a vehicle ferry from  1952 until 1984. Vehicle traffic had steadily fallen since the construction of the Clyde tunnel upstream in 1963/64 and the Erskine

Duncan takes a final curtsy on the Clyde.

Back on the south side of the river Clyde, we passed Shieldhall and came to the King George the Fifth dock. Estuary control had already warned us that the coaster MV Boisterous was making her way up river to the KGV dock but she was already moored by the time we arrived. We had already seen her making her way up the Clyde when we left shuttle cars at Port Glasgow.

MV Boisterous is a 59m x 9m

A tale of two Clyde Titans; one is still standing.

Downstream of the River Kelvin the south bank of the Clyde is dominated by the cranes of the Govan shipyard. The north bank is crowded by modern high rise flats that tower above Meadowside Quay. They have replaced the four huge brick built grain elevators that were built here from 1914 to 1968 to store grain imported from the American prairies.

The shipyard at Govan was originally Fairfield's

Forward paddling, through the years, on the Clyde.

Beneath the Glasgow Tower, we came across the paddle steamer Waverley tied up for the winter.

She was built in 1947 at the A & J Inglis yard on the Clyde. We crunched through the ice...

...to take a closer look at her. She is the last sea going paddle steamer in the World and was built for the run from Craigendorran Pier down to the Clyde ports. Her summer season now extends round the UK's

The Clyde, a river of change.

From the Kingston Bridge we continued down the River Clyde towards the Clyde Arc bridge. It was completed in 2006 by Halcrow. It is a tied bowstring arch of steel box section, which supports a precast reinforced concrete deck. From this view, the Glasgow Tower (beyond the bridge) looked like an arrow set for launch from the Arc's bow!

The Arc crosses the Clyde at an angle and is therefore, quite