Some places we've been and some places we're going.

Posts tagged ‘Inverness’

The Best Garden in Croft Road

As we’ve walked around the neighbourhood I’ve been looking at the front yards and have awarded Lena the prize for the best garden in the street. It has colour, different shapes and textures and is well cared for. It also has Bumblebees but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get a photo, unlike Honey Bees which spend a lot of daylight feeding on flower nectar the Bumble Bees seem to spend most of their time buzzing around then burrowing down under the leaves. I don’t know when they feed.

If you’re not interested in gardens or flowers look no further. 🙂

  • Backyard bloom

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Scotland 2025

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Wandering About

Lena had some business to attend to in the city centre and we wanted a couple of little souvenirs so we went back to The Victorian Market. I took more notice of the old photographs above the shops and discovered a brilliant mural on a wall in a lane behind the Market. The image linked to a food outlet opposite.

A Westie was waiting for his treat outside a coffee shop.

The city has so many interesting old buildings and lane-ways. Not everyone was enthralled with the idea of taking their knees up a big flight of steps.

The Eastgate Centre houses a lot of businesses. I would expect a shop called “HMV” with the dog listening to the gramophone logo beside the name to sell musical paraphernalia. It does but it also sells books, T shirts, stuffed toys, videos etc.

When we were here once before I remember waiting for the Noah’s Ark Clock to strike the hour when different objects and animals move while chimes play. At midday virtually everything gets animated. The clock was installed in 1983 when the Eastgate Centre was built.

Along one wall in the Centre were tables covered with stuff, I don’t know how much they lose to shoplifters because I didn’t even see the person manning the “shop”.

After we came back from the city centre we went for a walk around Scorguie, going past the Service Station. Can you imagine taking all your dirty washing to the local Supermarket site or Service Station to use washing and drying machines? It astonished me when I first saw one setup outside the local Co-op with washing spinning around and no-one in sight. Even more amazing was down at the Service Station seeing a family with young kids taking their washing out and putting it into their laundry baskets. I have no idea how much it costs, there was only one place I saw a cost in a little window and that was on the 20 kg Dryer and it was 15 pounds. You have to pay by card.

On our walk back “home” we saw what looked like turrets and investigated.

  • Neighbours

It was astonishing to find this place in amongst regular suburban homes. We discovered that there are eight residences in the “castle” now, on freehold titles which is hard to understand. As can be seen one is currently for sale.

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Scotland 2025, Uncategorized

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A Couple of Little Jaunts

In 1971 I was living in Aviemore when I decided I was going to get my ears pierced so Alex and I went to The Victorian Market in Inverness where there was a Jewellery Store called “Finkelsteins”. The person put a little dot on each ear then used a special gun arrangement to fire the stud into my earlobe. I remember thinking that having holes put into your body so you decorate it was very primitive and next I’d be getting a bone put through my nose. In 1974 Alex had one ear pierced at the same place but he gave up hippydom before we went to Australia in 1978. Today we revisited the Market and were happy to see that Finkelstein’s shop is still there.

Built in 1890 most of the Market still has the original features, elegant ironwork, glass and wood roof, vintage lights and round topped shop fronts.

All the shops are independently owned and there were many offering Scottish souvenirs where we bought a couple of things.

A new Food Hall was created in 2022.

When we left the Market we went across town to Howden’s Garden Centre for Lena to get some seedlings and for us to warm up in the cafe. I’ve never seen or heard of “Aussie Crunch” but am told it tastes like something called, “Hedgehog Slice” in Australia and in this case was very tasty. Not GF though.

For dinner Alex roasted the venison we bought at the Farmer Shop in Rothiemurchus along with some carrots and potatoes. At home some shops sell, “Im Perfect” or “Odd Bunch” fruit and vegetables which don’t conform to the prescribed supermarket criteria, the ones we bought here had a different name but were equally tasty.

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Scotland 2025, Uncategorized

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