Walking Victorian Aberdeen

On impulse, a few weeks ago, I bought a copy of an 1866 map of Aberdeen. Pondering it, I decided to begin a series of walks to re-trace the roads of that time and see what buildings and features survived. I started today, with the stretch of land south of the railway (now disused but marked on my map) from Bridge of Dee to the railway bridge. Much of the grounds of the grand mansions has survived in the shape of Duthie Park and Allenvale Cemetery (both late C19th.) The only significant building which has survived, sadly, is Outseats House of 1800 which illustrates this post. It was a very interesting walk, accompanied by Alistair, the map, a highlighter pen ( to mark survivors) and a light rain. I spotted many interesting buildings and landscape features which I had not previously noticed.

Pipe down!

Please excuse the bodgyness of this picture, caused by extreme jet-lag. This is the public art outside our hotel in Vancouver, with the obligatory very cool Japanese girl posed next to it. Vancouver throngs with these girls, apparently half the population is Japanese, Chinese or Korean. They dress in a really interesting way, lots of bright colours and abstract shapes. The sculpture looks a bit like underground pipes bursting out.

Ultimate Tea

This pic is from a new watercolour pad, hence the textured look. Also using my Cotman travel watercolour set which is a purist one with no body colour provided (black or white paints).

Ultimate tea with Japanese cast iron teapot and hourglass tea timer set to four minutes, from awesome Vancouver restaurant CinCin.