by Maureen Horton of Travel a la Carte The Foliage Season
the Travel Blog
As the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness gently starts to descend, there is no better time to visit New England to see the awesome array of Autumn colours. This wonderful spectacle is nature at it’s loveliest and nothing prepares you for the visual assault and sense of wonder this provokes.
Johnstone Rotary Club
Our fi rst speaker this month was Alex Lochrie, an author and artist who has led an extremely varied and adventurous life, having enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, successfully completing the arduous training course, to become a member of the Second Parachute Regiment. He remained a legionnaire for eleven years. Alex
gave us a brief account of some of his experiences serving in Corsica, Chad, Saudi Arabia (during the First Gulf War) and later in Sarajevo.
Photo above shows Alex Lochrie with President Steve Gibbs.
On 21st July we were treated to an illustrated travel talk by our own Tom McKay who described a recent visit he and his wife Sonja made to the Kingdom of Bhutan. Tom had visited Bhutan many years ago when, as a practising architect, he had been invited there to make a feasibility study into the building of a distillery in the district of Bumthang. Tom showed many beautiful and interesting slides of this relatively unvisited country including views of Mount Everest from the air and others showing many Buddhist Temples, prayer fl ags and Dzongs (Fortresses) all in beautiful surroundings. There were also slides of Kathmandu which was included in their holiday itinerary.
Photo above right shows Tom McKay with President Steve Gibbs.
We have enjoyed a cruise on the Forth and Clyde Canal using two boats belonging to The Seagull Trust which is a charity devoted to the provision of free canal cruising for people with special needs and their carers.
Our group joined the canal boats, “Marjorie Seagull” & “Yarrow Seagull”, at the impressive Southbank Marina in Kirkintilloch. After casting-off we went
Fly to Boston, pick up a car and head North to start with as the “Fall” starts fi rst here and slowly drifts South. Drive through New Hampshire and then to Vermont, staying in gracious country inns along the way. There are lovely little towns to visit and one of our favourites was Stowe, home to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and the Von Trapp Lodge of the “Sound of Music” fame. After escaping from Austria, the family headed to Philadelphia and fi nally settled in Stowe, where the lodge was built as a music school and is now a hotel. They called it “a little bit of Austria, a whole lot of Vermont”. Some members of the family are buried in the grounds, including Maria.
You could then continue South to Cape Cod, 90 minutes from Boston, where we thought the nicest town was Chatham. A short ferry can take you for a day trip to Nantucket or Martha’s vineyard, a quiet haven for the rich and famous.
Thousands of Americans head here at this time of year, so it is essential to make reservations in advance for accommodation. If you do not want to drive yourself a “Tauck tour” could be the answer. A top class coach touring company where everything is taken care of for you and the price includes fi rst class hotels and all meals.
If you want to plan a trip, call into Travel a la Carte in Kilmacolm.
a short distance to the east and called at a convenient wharf to collect provisions ( Fish Suppers ) which were enjoyed by all. As we headed back to the west in a peaceful glide along the canal admiring the scenery between Bishopbriggs and Kirkintilloch, we were oblivious to the fact that we were so close to these urban areas.
Photo (below, far left) shows part of the group at near to Cadder Church.
We have also been treated to a reading, by Ronald Aitchison, from Bill Patterson’s book “Tales from the Back Green”. Ronald has previously read other stories from this excellent book and on this occasion he chose to read “The Last Days of Eden” which is a tale reminiscing about a teenager’s holidays in Millport.
At our last meeting of the month we were addressed by Johnstone solicitor Bill Miller who recounted a few fascinating legal cases in the early history of “Duty of Care”. In particular Bill described the famous case of the “Snail in the Bottle” or “The Paisley Snail”. This case concerned an event in 1929 which eventually went as far as the House of Lords and their decision, in 1932, established the modern concept of negligence in both Scots and English law. It is the origin of the modern law of delict in Scots.
Photo left shows Bill Miller with Steve Gibbs.
14 |SEPTEMBER 2011 | your LOCAL news every month - in print and online |
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