@22Michelle One of the many sculptures in Glenrothes. I really enjoyed wandering around the town trying to take photographs of them all. I didn't succeed, didn't have time.
@22Michelle Not much history in Glenrothes, it's Scotland's version of Milton Keynes. But it has lots of parkland, more sculptures than I had time to see, plenty of woodland walks. It's a bit short of pubs and cafes but CAFFE CAFFE in the Kingdom Shopping Centre is pretty good.
@22Michelle Isn't that a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater? I mean your in-laws must be a fairly small fraction of the population of Fife! :-)
@22Michelle You could be right, at least you aren't the only person to mention bigotry. here's a quote from my blog entry from Glenrothes
Saturday 12th July 2025, 17:19
A guy has just walked over to my table to warn me that I'm probably the first transgender (his word) that most people have seen around here and that when it gets later the bar will probably fill up with the less up to date members of male society. He warned me several times to take care and be vigilant.
He asked me where I was from so I said I'm English, from Wiltshire. His response seemed odd to me, he said something about me being posh! And when I said that I now live in Norway he of course has a friend somewhere in the Nordics, possibly Finland, he wasn't quite sure.
I said that so far the only comments I have had in Glenrothes were about my bare feet. He said he hadn't even noticed.
That's a first, the warning I mean. I wonder if it's really true? But of course he wasn't explicit about what trouble might ensue.
@ninalanyon First question my in laws asked me "are you a Kaffliik". Mot a question I'd ever been asked before. And whilst Fife is not the worst ir's way woirse than where I grew up. And it has always been there.
@22Michelle The whole business of religious conflict is something I mostly know only from theory and hearsay. When I was in primary school our neighbours on one side were Catholic, I was christened in the local Anglican church, my mother was a Baptist, my father an atheist, my best friend a non-observant Jew. My mother's best friend was Catholic and they went to Christmas Eve mass together.
But none of these people ever spoke about religion unless asked and never expressed any divisive opinions.
But that's the South of England where you might meet just as many pagans and where Glastonbury Tor is the scene of celebrations at every equinox and many days in between.
Which reminds me that I have pictures from the Tor, taken the day after the equinox. Pity I missed it, a guy I spoke to said he reckoned there were probably two hundred people at the top.
@ninalanyon Nice pictures. Like you I grew up nothong nothing zbout the religious bigotry that scare much of Gladgow and the central belt of Scotland. Fife being mining country had a large migration of miners from the west coast of Scotland where the religious bigotry was deep.
