Moe’s Books

October 28, 2025October 28, 20253 Comments

There are certain themed subjects I like to fill my sketchbooks with if I can. The old urban sketchers rule that every sketchbook needs a dinosaur and a classic car, well I try my best there, even if the dinosaur is me. Fire hydrants, I try to sketch ’em all, like Pokemon Go. I never see people out playing that any more. Pubs, especially old pubs, I try to draw as many as I can especially in England, because they are all disappearing, like the Pokemon Go players. Tube stations, they might not be disappearing but some of the older ones are getting knocked down and expanded into bigger more modern stations, and I like those old historic buildings. Some of them. The other thing I always feel a great need to sketch are bookshops, independent bookshops preferably, as they play a major role in their local communities and are also constantly under peril. Before moving out here I worked for a small bookshop in Finchley in north London for a few years (not in the shop bit, but the office in the basement) and it was a good place to work (and I like Finchley as an area), but also a real insight into how hard it is for small businesses in the face of current market forces. They ended up closing less than two years after I moved out here and I wish I had at least sketched the store for posterity. Many other small bookshops were closing at the time, and replaced with what, more estate agents? So fast forward twenty and I’m pleased to see that, over here and over there too, there are still many small bookshops hanging on, and in many communities really finding their place again. The first place I worked when I came to California was a small independent bookshop, the Avid Reader, and they faced the challenge of Borders and Amazon until Borders went away and Amazon didn’t. They are still there (with new owners now) and always busy, I’d say one of the most important places in downtown Davis. However one of the first bookshops I went into when we first moved to America 20 years ago was this one, Moe’s on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley. It’s a big store with new and used books over several floors, and feels like an old-school well-used bookshop. Anyway, Summer holidays had started and so one day I went down to Berkeley with my seventeen-year-old to get out of Davis and look around Berkeley, we spent our time walking about campus, visiting that big games shop, spending ages in record shops, and looking around Moe’s, among other shops. We were having those massive waffles at the place next door, and while waiting for them I dashed across the street to start a sketch of the bookshop. The big red and white awning is characteristic of this store. Inside I found a big old illustrated book about old myths and witches that I used to have when I was a kid, I would be obsessed not only with the stories but mostly with the drawings, which would inspire me to draw and write my own stories. I should have bought it, but instead I bought a copy of Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda for some reason. I had to stop myself buying this big illustrated book of Celtic legends (Celtic as in Irish and Scottish, not as in the football club from Glasgow, it wasn’t full of pictures of Henrik Larsson or Roy Aitken). I had to save some money to spend in Amoeba music. I’m glad to see Moe’s is still there and doing well, and now it’s another bookshop in my sketchbook. I see this though and it makes me hungry for those waffles.

Here are some sketches from the Amtrak train we took down to Berkeley from Davis. Above I am practicing my perspective as I always do on the train. There’s California outside the window, the view going over the Delta (the yellow bit on the right is higher than the eye-level yellow bit on the left, perspective fans, because of ‘hills’). It was a bit bumpy but I enjoyed sketching quickly in that brush pen. I sketched a couple of characters too, below, I mean passengers not characters, they are not in a story. Well maybe they are in a story, but who am I too judge. I’ve done a lot of quick people sketching this year, it’s good practice. I heard that they have recently ended the UC Berkeley-UC Davis shuttle connecting the two campuses, which is terrible news, especially as I never took it in twenty years of living here.

across the country, by plane and by train

April 24, 2025Leave a comment

During Spring Break, our family took a trip across the breadth of the country to Washington DC and New York. For a few years now we have been using our Spring Breaks to see more of the USA, alternating between national parks and big cities, and this year we decided to visit ‘Our Nation’s Capital’ (as they call it here) and the ‘Big Apple’ (I don’t know if you’ve heard of that but that’s what they call New York). Of course when we travel I must also sketch, what else am I going to do, watch a movie? I did that too, and read a book (Agatha Christie ‘And Then There Were None’, which I finished on the train to New York). Above, the Southwest flight we took to St. Louis. I’ve not ever been to St. Louis, but we flew right over the big Gateway Arch, which was exciting, and then stopped at the airport to listen to the very different accents while waiting for an overpriced lunch. I can’t pronounce St. Louis, I never know whether to add the ‘s’ sound at the end or not, despite hearing it and being told, when I actually come to say it, my brain forgets and I choose the wrong one. A bit like whenever I need to plug in a USB, *every*single*time* I will plug it in the wrong way round first. This is called the ‘USB Law’, or the ‘St. Louis Principle’. We flew from St. Louis to DC, but I didn’t bother drawing that short flight, and caught up on some Agatha Christie instead.

After a couple of days exploring Washington’s museums and monuments, we caught the Amtrak train from Union Station, finding ourselves cramped into large seats with no legroom, looking out of a small window as the marshy landscape whizzed by. This is an America I have not seen, the East Coast where there are lots of little states and big cities around large estuaries, very far away from our dry sunny California. I love a train, watching the landscape change and wondering what will come next. I finished reading Agatha (the butler did it; only joking) and sketched. We passed through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and then the skyscrapers started to come into view as we approached New York, my favourite city after London.

Well New York was fun, but it was time to fly back to California. Thanks to the magic of airline points wer were able to fly back in business class, which was luxury with those little compartments, massive screens, lie-flat seats (with no cushions) and metal cutlery. I sat in the compartment next to my 17 year old and watched Avengers Infinity War. I was going to watch Conclave but thought I should save that for when the Pope died, which unfortunately he did just a few days ago. A shame, I liked Pope Francis. The flight took us all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, and I was still excited by all of our wanderings about New York City. Lots of sketches to post soon.

And finally the last leg, Phoenix to Sacramento, after a couple of hours in a lounge at PHX. We had the bigger seats for this leg as well, and while I did sketch a bit I relaxed and watched another old film, Withnail and I. I’ve not seen it in years. We made it back to Davis tired and in need of a cup of tea and a long sleep, more adventures around the country. I’ll post all my sketches soon.

green apple and schubert

October 24, 2024January 23, 2025Leave a comment

I needed a day in the city, and wanted to explore another part of town. Davis was getting too hot, and it’s about 30 to 40 degrees cooler down there. I’ve been spending too much time under trees lately. I took the early Capitol Corridor, the familiar journey across the Valley and past the Delta and along the Bay, and I can’t help myself sketching those colours, it will never be enough. I have sketches of this trip going back a long time now. It’s all a learning process. I listened to, what did I listen to this time? Pulp I think, still in the excitement of having finally seen them play live after thirty years of waiting. I listened to another podcast interview with Jarvis Cocker where he talked about some of his favourite records, and how he never lost the love of vinyl as a format for listening to music, the side of a record being just long enough to experience it, before doing something else like reading a book. I see that. It’s how I felt growing up, when CDs finally came along I missed that ‘two-sided’ construction, but could see that bands in the mid-90s still tried to think of their albums in that way. I was thinking about records and books as part of my destination, though I didn’t think I’d buy any, because I only brought a small bag, and anyway I have too many and not a lot of space at home. It’s good to buy tickets to places where you can look at them and then draw things. I always worry that by spending so much time looking at and drawing things I forget to experience them as well, so I decided that I’d draw what I can, but not be too worried about it. So I arrived at the Transbay Terminal, the fancy bus station in downtown San Francisco, and found the bus that would take me straight out to the Richmond area, and up to Clement Street.

Although I’ve heard about this place for years, I had never been to Green Apple Books, not this one anyway. I drew the smaller one over in the Inner Sunset about three years ago, another September day exploring the city. Clement Street and that whole area on the north side of Golden Gate Park was somewhere that in all these years I had never explored, it felt just a bit far away. The 38R bus got there pretty quickly. I passed by buildings I thought would make good drawings, and old pubs I thought I should take note of and check out some day. I got out somewhere up on Geary near 6th, and walked over to Clement to find Green Apple Books. Fellow sketcher Suhita Shirodkar had sketched the bookshop recently, which gave me the idea to finally come over this way, and it was a good place to explore. A day like this is a big effort, getting up early and catching a not-inexpensive train at 7am, not making it to my destination until about 10am, just to wander about until it was time to make the long journey back. It was foggy, and there were people around having breakfast or brunch depending on how organized they were. I ate a pastry and stood opposite Green Apple to sketch it. I was on a sort of elevated wooden platform where people can sit and drink their coffee, and could see over the parked car. It’s funny, when you stand near a parking spot, there is always the chance that a large car might park in the way to block your view, but I find that sometimes people think about parking there, but do not when they see me sketching. Those people are usually in cars that would not block my view anyway. Then there are those, usually in larger SUV-type cars, that don’t mind blocking my view if they park, even if they notice me. I don’t worry at all, these are occupational hazards of the urban sketcher and I just move down slightly (I am not standing there with an easel), it’s what I expect when I pick a spot to draw. It’s just an observation, I’m not making any judgements about the type of people who drive bigger cars being less thoughtful, and actually I would like to tell those who choose not to park where I am sketching that it really doesn’t block me at all if they park, I’d rather they got the good spot (and save it from a minivan or something). But really I think they just assume I am a traffic warden. Anyway, here I had a good view of the shop. I decided to do all my sketching before going in to browse.

This impish fellow stands in front of the shop, holding a red book and a green apple. The bookshop is much bigger inside than I realized, and going up and down its stairs was like an adventure book in itself. My son would love this place, I thought. My teenage self would too, and after all when I was a teenager what would I do on a Saturday other than get on a train or bus and go exploring for interesting bookshops, usually finding myself in the foreign languages section. There were things I wanted, but I exercised restraint, and just bought a postcard with a painting of the shop on it, and a canvas tote bag for my son. Despite having worked in bookshops, I sometimes get overwhelmed by it all.

Before I went into Green Apple, I decided to sketch the bakery outside of which I was standing. Schubert’s Bakery has been making cakes since 1911 and having eaten one myself I can confirm they are delicious. I got one in a little box, covered in all sorts of fancy chocolate, and had to go back in for a fork because it was bigger than expected, and filled me up so much I never ended up eating lunch. I could not get a certain song out of my head as I sketched, “Blue Suede Schubert” by the Rutles. A good bakery is an essential part of a good neighbourhood, I have always thought that. Somewhere for amazing cakes. Places that do not have this are very much worse off for it. If people end up getting the generic bland cakes from your Targets or Safeways or whatever, the world becomes a much more boring place. Show your local bakeries love! And eat lovely cakes. When I was done sketching and looking around this part of Clement, I walked down a bit further, where there was a local Chinese festival happening, with little stalls lining the street and music, and people canvassing for local elections. I found the bus that would take me further down Geary again and explored a different part of the area.

a plate full of pancakes at the original pantry

April 10, 2024April 10, 20242 Comments

I had a lie in on the Sunday; well I woke up very early (even after the time change) to watch Spurs v Villa through the corner of my eye, but I fell back asleep when it looked like it wasn’t going anywhere (actually we ended up winning 4-0, best performance of the season). I needed the kip anyway, and was still feeling a little full from the pre-bedtime burrito I bought at the food truck across from the hotel. So it was pushing lunchtime when I finally went out into the world. I thought I might do some drawing around downtown LA before heading to Riverside, but my main goal was to eat at The Original Pantry. I first saw this place way back in 2010 when I sketched it but didn’t eat there; I came back in 2017 with my mate from England, but the line was so long we decided to go to Denny’s (and waited even longer just for our food), so I’ve wanted to come back for ages. The Original Pantry opened its doors a hundred years ago in 1924 and boasts to have never closed its doors since its open 24 hours a day (I don’t know about during the pandemic). It’s a proper classic little diner with excellent food and beloved by locals. I absolutely didn’t mind waiting in line because I knew I’d be hungrier by the time I got in, and I could sketch the line while I was out there. Their website does say they want peoples’ stories from being in line. So I stood and whipped out my little Fabriano sketchbook to draw my wait (see below). However, I hadn’t been there for more than about three minutes, when one of the staff came out to check the size of each party going in. Since I was by myself, they already had a seat at the counter for me so I was led past the long line, some of whom were saying “oh man you’re lucky!” to me (I resisted the urge to say “see ya later suckers!” but I did feel excited at being called in to eat). My seat at the counter was close to the very hot cookers, but there were other locals eating there and reading their papers, it felt pretty awesome. I didn’t fancy a big lunch, but I ordered a plate of their famous pancakes, and wow that was a big plate of pancakes. I couldn’t even finish it, it was so filling. My stomach (and my soul) well satisfied, I got up and went back outside, and finished off the sketch of the line that I had started (below), before heading across the street to draw the full scene (above). That sketch above took me about an hour, but it was nice standing on the corner of the street in downtown LA, it’s a bit different from Davis.

The last time I stood there sketching was in 2010, my wife and I were visiting Los Angeles for our anniversary, though she had a work event in DTLA that day so I spent the day exploring. The hydrant drawn in that old sketch is now different, and I stood at a slightly different spot of the corner. It’s not actually the corner of Figueroa and 9th (9th is the street on the other side of the main road) but at the junction of Figueroa and James M. Wood Boulevard (the stretch of 9th was named for local labor leader James M. Wood in 1997). Anyway I wanted to show this sketch here again, I always liked it.

Eating pancakes wans;t all I did that day. My hotel stay also gave me entry to the Grammy Museum a bit further down the road. I didn’t have a load of time before I needed to catch my train but I figured it would be fun to look around, and it was. The only sketch I made in there was of Michael Jackson’s jacket from Thriller, because we used watch and dance to that video so much when we were kids. I enjoyed the hip hop sections too, there was a lot of history there. It’s not a very big museum but was worth seeing, but I had a train to catch to I headed off to Union Station.

I had hoped to arrive a little earlier and spend some time sketching Union Station, but as it was I was able to take my time, and a very helpful young volunteer showed me the right ticket machine and the way to the platform, he was a university student who apparently helps at the station because he is so into trains; I understand, me too. I’ve been thinking a lot about taking a great train journey lately, one of those that goes across the country taking several days, with time to sit and think and read and get into adventures. Well maybe not adventures. Would I get bored? Probably, but I’d be moving towards somewhere. A couple of those long distance trains stop in Davis (the Coastal Starlight and the California Zephyr) so who knows, some day. As it was, I took a 1.5 hour regional train across the LA metropolitan area and into what’s called the ‘Inland Empire’, to the city of Riverside. And of course I sketched on the train.

my train of thought

February 24, 2024Leave a comment

Last weekend I took an afternoon at the California State Railroad Museum. There was a big rainstorm coming in and I thought that’s a good place to spend a rainy day. It ended up not raining until the evening, but I still got to draw a lot of trains so that was nice. I also got the day before some new glasses, these ‘progressive’ lenses, that are better for up-close at the bottom (ie, when looking down at my sketchbook) and better for distance up to, however they are also blurry looking down at the floor or in my peripheral vision. It takes getting used to and it’s making me a bit dizzy. Anyway I wanted to try out drawing in a lower light environment like this. It was frustrating at first, and I tried to switch back to my other glasses, but my up-close was not as good in low light. anyway I soldiered on, I had engines to draw. The one above I drew in the brown fountain pen ink, it’s one of the first big locomotive engines you see in the museum. Seeing these remind me of the plastic train set toys I had as a kid, that looked nothing like any train I’d seen in England, but I imagined them barreling across the vast American West. They can be a bit complicated to draw, stretching the observation skills a bit, but my strain was really in the new glasses as much as anything. (Also I’ve never liked drawing wheels).

I walked about looking at it all, the history of the West before me. I’m really into trains and always dream of making a long train journey, like the California Zephyr (which stops in Davis as well as Sacramento) heading out towards Chicago. I read Murder on the Orient Express recently and became obsessed with those really high-end trains as well, looking at videos online of the super expensive train routes to exotic places. Silly. I do love a train journey though. We used to come to this museum quite a lot when my son was very young, a toddler, and look around before making a beeline for the section with all the toy trains, that was the best bit. We got rid of his old wooden train tracks and trains and bridges a long time ago, I used to love setting those up myself. Those were fun moments. He was really into Thomas the Tank Engine, as were most kids weren’t they (and it used to bug me when people over here would say “Thomas Train” like seriously, do you even watch it?). Ringo didn’t do the voices over here, and the Fat Controller was called “Sir Topham Hat” in America, which is probably a bit nicer. For the panorama sketch above, I sat on a bench in the main atrium and drew the scene as best I could, I was already getting quite tired. There were families with their young kids excited about the big engines, and on their way to play with all the toy trains, that was us a long time ago.

Th train engine I drew was this one, the Virginia and Truckee No. 18 “The Dayton”. I am not much of a trainspotter and cannot remember all the models and information. It’s an impressive engine this though. When I was a kid there was this trope that kids wanted to be a train driver (by the 1980s I think that was the sort of thing your grandparents would say), but I always wanted to be a train passenger, it’s a more reachable ambition. There was also (and still is maybe) the image of the trainspotter in their anorak, people still use the word ‘anorak’ to describe anyone sufficiently geeky to be uncool, with their thermos and their thick glasses. I mean, I’ve always been in the anorak camp myself, I wander about with a sketchbook drawing whatever, and I love to draw things like trains because they represent the human spirit of discovery and ingenuity, curiosity and story. Imagine if we had gone straight from the world of wagons to freeways and not had that great idea of train travel in between? The world is better for the train.

engines of old sacramento

December 23, 2023December 25, 2023Leave a comment

Last Saturday I was feeling bored of Davis, but not motivated enough to go down to San Francisco for a day of sketching. Then I remembered that it might be interesting to go to old Sacramento and look at the trains. I hadn’t been to the Railroad Museum in a long time (not since my son was very young). I took the train there from Davis; I didn’t actually go to the Museum itself, because there were engines enough outside to sketch, and it was a bright sunny December day. Families were gathering in their pyjamas to ride the Polar Express, the annual holiday fun train ride that recreates the film/book. We rode it a couple of times years ago, that feels like a long time ago now. Anyway, I found a bit of shade and decided to draw the big red engine with ‘Santa Fe’ on the front that is parked permanently out in the open, with a big Christmas tree next to it (presumably less permanent). I love this engine. It reminds me of Chuggington, the kids TV show engine. We had this board game when my son was a kid called ‘Chuggington: Ride the Rails’. I coloured it all there. It was a good sketch to start the day, though already my legs were telling me I’d need to sit down occasionally on this sketching day. Still I wanted to draw more trains.

I went over to the front of the train that hosts the Polar Express. I know there’s an old steam train that runs through here, or at least used to, but it looks like they use this Western Pacific engine to pull the Polar Express carriages now. I could see they were getting ready to board everyone, so I drew as quickly as I could, but it pulled away before I could draw many details, only outlines, so this was a finish off later job. It’s another ‘Chuggington’ style engine, but with more of a Chelsea 1995 away kit paint job. Nearby there was a voice on a loudspeaker announcing fish and chip orders that were ready. That sounded good; I had that for lunch. I only ate half of it though, it was a little bit gross, and was making me feel a bit Tom and Dick. I threw it in the bin and went to sketch the big old steam engine that was now parked up on the rails. I liked the little spots of colour provided by the trees. I drew the whole outline and a bunch of the shapes and details with a mix of pen and pencil before the sun was getting in my eyes a bit, and my legs were asking for a break, so I said ‘I’ve done enough’ and went somewhere else, finishing off the remaining details later. I do love a steam engine, and a nice bit of machinery.

Here are a couple of quick sketches from the train going into Sacramento from Davis, in my little Fabriano sketchbook.

Going for a ride on the Jacobite Steam Train

August 14, 2023August 14, 20234 Comments

Our main reason for visiting the Highlands was to take a ride on the Jacobite Steam Train, which chugs along from Fort William, over the world famous Glenfinnan viaduct, to the coastal village of Mallaig, in sight of the Isle of Skye. We would not go to Skye on this trip, but at least I saw it out there in the distance. This is one of several steam trains that operates in the Scottish Highlands and there is honestly no better way to see the Highlands than by train. Other than hiking maybe, but you can sit down on the train and watch it all go by from your window. The Jacobite Steam Train – so called because it goes through the heart of the countryside most associated with the Jacobite uprisings – is probably most famous as the inspiration for the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter movies, where you see it going over the big viaduct, probably followed by a Dementor or a flying car. So, the route is as you can imagine very popular with Harry Potter fans, and we saw a lot of people in their Gryffindor or Slytherin scarves, and you could purchase Harry Potter themed snacks. It wasn’t all Wizarding World cheesiness though, this train was all about experiencing the golden age of steam. Before we took the train however, we wanted to actually see it go over the viaduct from below. We drove out to Glenfinnan, about 20 minutes or so from Fort William. It was raining, but there were a lot of people out ready to photograph this iconic view. We had to park a little way up the hill, but Glenfinnan is so beautiful even in the dreary wet that we enjoyed the walk and the fresh air. We found a spot with a great view of the huge viaduct, built between 1897 and 1901, took some photos, and waited for the train. I had to sketch it of course, as best I could in the by now very light rain. What a fantastic moment as it passed by. There were scores of people on the hillside with their cameras, and we were one of many down below at ground level. We didn’t have time to go and look at the Glenfinnan monument but could see it clearly. Glenfinnan was where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745 to gather the Highland clans in uprising against the British crown, to regain the throne for the Stuarts. Despite many victories and a deep advance into England (getting as far as Derby) the uprising was ultimately unsuccessful, and ended at the tragic Battle of Culloden in 1746 with Hanoverian victory and a lot of bloodshed. Anyway, on to the steam train!

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We had been looking forward to this ride for quite a while, and it did not disappoint, in fact it was the highlight of our trip. We took our seats which were reserved to face out towards the curve of the viaduct as we passed it – on the return journey, you switch sides with the passengers on the opposite side of the aisle, which is a nice way to do it. The scenery was beautiful, but it was still raining a fair bit, and had been coming down as we boarded the train. I did a quick sketch of my son looking out at the rolling Scottish scenery, a bottle of Highland Spring water and a can of Irn Bru Xtra giving us no doubt as to which country we were in. Our neighbours across the aisle were visiting from Canada, along with their friend who was an older man from Glasgow, an interesting chap I enjoyed talking geology with. He enjoyed telling my wife his joke that “the best thing to come out of Edinburgh is the train to Glasgow,” which she had heard once or twice before, I think Glaswegians like to remind people!

This is the Hogwarts Express, whatever anyone says, and so you expect a bit of magic. We got some – the rainy morning suddenly gave way a few minutes before we arrived at Glenfinnan, blue skies and sunshine started breaking through the Highland clouds, and our journey over the viaduct was probably one of the most beautiful views we’ve ever seen. And we have been to the Grand Canyon, Delicate Arch, the Golden Gate Bridge; well this was right up there, because we were part of it. I was safe to poke my phone out of the window to take pictures; they do of course warn you not to stick your head out of the window as the train is moving, for fear that it will get lopped off by a tree (like that scene in The Young Ones).

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We made a short stop at Glenfinnan station, where we could stretch our legs, look at the little museum in the station, or buy souvenirs (I spent 20 quid on a set of small prints of classic LNER Scottish railway posters). Then it was back on the train for the scenic stretch to Mallaig. That train journey was one of the best we’ve ever done, but as you leave the hills and go along the silvery coastline, you get the feeling that you’re approaching the edge of the world. It really sparks the imagination.

Mallaig is a small fishing village and port and the terminus of this branch of the West Highland Line. We had a couple of hours to look around, get some ice cream, enjoy the little harbour. It was warm and sunny by this point, and while my wife and son had a wander, I sat and drew the scene above, which took well over an hour. Many of the people around town were from the steam train as well, but there were hiker families too, from all over – the group sat next to me were Finnish. When I was finished (nice segue there), I did another very quick outline sketch of some moored boats, with the intention of drawing it all in more details and colour later. In the end I only added the ink (I did that on the flight back to America) but didn’t colour it in. So you can imagine all the bright colours of those boats for yourself. We all got a soft-serve ice cream, some mroe drinks for the two-hour journey back to Fort William, and went back to the train. As it rolled out of Mallaig, there were people in their yards waving at all the passengers, the train tracks just a few feet away from the back doors.

We took so many photos on the way back. It became a joke in our part of the carriage that every time I would get up to take a picture from the window, we would suddenly pass by some trees or enter a short tunnel. Sometimes the view would be just the side of a steep hill, but sometimes it would be a cinematic sweep over a deep blue loch, like below. You cannot get enough of this type of thing. I live in California and we have some of the best views in the world, but Scotland is just mind-blowing. We want to go back and explore all the rest. I think there’s some Irn Bru and Tunnocks Teacakes we haven’t yet consumed too.

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I did get a nice local beer on the train though. I went to the dining car, and asked for a beer please. The guy on the counter said, “Oh aye, I can recommend this one!” He gave me a super delicious beer called “Sheepshaggers Gold”, by Cairngorm Brewery. Chuckling at the name, it was a tasty way to round off our train journey. Here I am enjoying it, wearing my lovely FC Red Star Paris shirt.

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With our epic steam train journey over, we spent another night in Fort William, before our final day in Scotland, when we would visit Loch Ness, and we would finally find that elusive creature that every single gift shop sold cuddly toys and magnets and postcards and t-shirts of. No, not Nessie, but the Hairy Highland Coo…

the train to scotland

August 3, 2023Leave a comment

I love a train journey, especially a long one in a comfy seat with a table and a nice view over the countryside. It’s exciting, more exciting than a car trip, less annoying than flying, and don’t get me started on coach travel (which isn’t so bad actually, I’ve not done it in a while, but historically I’ve had mixed bags there). Anyway, one journey I was really looking forward to was Kings Cross to Edinburgh. The last time I took this journey was in 1999 with my friend Simon on our way up to Scotland, where we’d join our university’s theatre company at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after spending a couple of days with his uncle outside Glasgow. This time it was me, my wife and my son on an eight-day adventure around Scotland, this being the first time back since that trip at the end of the 20th century. That was a really long time ago now. Well the countryside hasn’t changed that much, it’s still a lovely view over rolling English countryside, gradually getting lovelier the further north you go, passing by Durham which looks wonderful from the train (though my son and I were playing MarioKart at the time), going right through Newcastle and its bridges over the Tyne, past Lindisfarne off the coast, imagining the Viking raids all those centuries ago, circling around the lovely Berwick upon Tweed, which could be thought of as a little bit of Scotland in England (the football team does play in the Scottish league), and up that dramatic coastline towards Edinburgh itself. I think it’s one of the great train journeys of Britain. The train we were on was terminating at Inverness; that was our final destination as well, but after a week of seeing as much of Scotland as we could fit in. First though, three nights in Edinburgh. Our train journey was pretty pleasant, there was an older guy sat in one of the seats next to me who saw my Spurs top and he was a Tottenham fan, and told me a lot of stories about watching Spurs in the 70s and 80s and watching Ossie Ardiles, of course Ossie was my hero and I loved watching him as a kid myself, down at the Lane. A little later there was an American family with several kids and they were debating over whether the little light above the seat was red or orange, spending quite a long time on the topic, getting other passengers opinions (yeah we really don’t do that in the UK; I was going to say it looked yellow), but I did notice the dad really looking at my Spurs shirt, though he didn’t say anything. A few days later, we actually saw the same family up on Calton Hill, they recognized us, and he did say to me “I remember you were in the Tatt’num jersey!” I considered asking if they settled their argument on whether the small light was orange or red yet. And so, we arrived in Edinburgh, and walked to our apartment where we would spend the next three nights. We were right off the Royal Mile, and it was a walk uphill from the station. On the way, we passed the Old St.Paul’s church on Jeffrey Street, which was (I had almost forgotten) the location of our plays with the QMW theatre company in 1999. A number of barely-remembered memories came dribbling back. Many people whose names I’ve largely forgotten. It was 24 years ago after all, literally more than half my lifetime ago. I did the lighting and sound for three shows, I think it was three, along with Simon. Midsummer Nights Dream was the main one, plus a shorter piece I think was called Fat, by our friend Cuan (good bloke), and then another one which I have completely forgotten, except they used part of this song by Air over and over, and my job there was to turn on the music, and turn it off again, I think about four times in total. It was the only time I did Edinburgh with my uni, it was fun albeit quite drunken at times, there was another theatre company at the same venue who were performing a bizarre version of Ubu Roi, already a bizarre play, which I really loved and consequently got really into the original French version. I remember going out with the cast from that play on a fairly crazy evening. I do have some good memories from that trip, even if so many of them are distant and foggy now. 1999…

It is nice not being in Edinburgh during the Fringe though. The Royal Mile then was a cacophony of people, jugglers, students dressed in silly costumes handing out flyers to their low-budget plays (I was one of them, though I wasn’t acting or performing), and tourists. It was still busy this time, but a lot more mellow than that. The Royal Mile is mostly tartan souvenir shops, whisky shops, and cashmere shops. But there’s a lot of history here, and we really enjoyed being around those tall old stone Edinburgh buildings. Now that I am for all sense and purposes an American, I did wonder if I had to start calling it “Edin-borrow”, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I did however insist that we had to eat haggis. Now I don’t eat it myself because it’s meaty, but they have a vegetarian version now. At the restaurant where we ate dinner, down on the curving Victoria Street, we tried it, my wife getting the original style. I think she liked it, though it was very rich and she couldn’t finish it. I liked mine, though I preferred the Neeps and Tatties that went with it. Oh I do love my Neeps and Tatties. Neeps I supposed were Turnips, though actually what they call turnips in Scotland are more like what they call Rutubaga in America, and Swede in England; English turnips are actually something as bit different. I actually learned this from a podcast I started listening to called “Stories of Scotland”, hosted by Annie and Jenny, and I probably listened to about forty of their episodes while on this trip, and many more since. It’s all Scottish folklore, history, geography, geology and traditions. So, we had our haggis, that’s done now. I brought out my little sketchbook on that first evening’s walkabout, just doing a couple of quick sketches as we stopped. The one below is at Parliament Square, which is on the Royal Mile very close to St. Giles Cathedral, and I recognized this area as the part where The Vision and Wanda Maximoff battled against Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight in Avengers Infinity War (I love that film), before crashing down into Waverley St Station, and getting rescued by Captain America, Falcon and Black Widow. So, a bit like the Royal Mile during the Fringe, then.

carriage best

June 21, 2021Leave a comment

After a very long time, I finally went on a train. On public transportation, first time since the start of the Strange Times. It was a big step. California is Opening Up, I’m all vaccinated, and I needed to get out of Davis for the day. So, I took the train down to Oakland, a city that I’ve never actually been to. Amazing isn’t it, I have lived here for sixteen years and yet never been to Oakland. Well I say I’ve never been, I’ve been through it on the BART many times, and I’ve been to the airport once. On the very first trip I took to the US in 2002 I even went to watch the Oaland A’s. I have never been to Oakland proper though; I will post the sketches another day. For now here is the sketch I did in red pen on the Amtrak train to Richmond (I got the BART after that to Oakland). This was the very last page of the Moleskine sketchbook (Sketchbook #39). I liked it do much that a week later I went back on the train, this time heading for San Francisco, where I spent an overnighter exploring and sketching. Another post for that. I opened a brand new Moleskine sketchbook (Sketchbook #40) and on the first page I drew the purple pen train sketch below. People wore their masks except when drinking or eating; the group in front of me here were all cyclists. The trains are never particularly busy when I get on them so it felt quite normal really, and I was I admit delighted to be on the train again. It’s been two years since I had my last sketching day out in San Francisco, amazingly. Every time I travel I think, I’m not going to draw the train again am I, but then I’m there and I think, yes I am actually. Here’s the album of most of my in-voyage sketches (planes, trains and…other trains): https://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/albums/72157671776646978

duel of the freights

March 20, 2021Leave a comment

We get long freight trains rolling through Davis. Those really long ones like you see in movies set in America, that roll across the country, miles long, maybe with a hobo in one of the cars warming his socks on a fire and ripping yarns and tall tales. In fact you might say Davis exists because of the railroad; the Union Pacific railroad build a railway triangle here after getting hold of the land from the farmers Jerome C. and Mary Davis. They are who Davis is named after actually; originally it was ‘Davisville’, but the town’s first postmaster, William Dresbach, decided ‘Davisville’ was too long for the very small envelopes they had back then, and shortened it to ‘Davis’. That was over a hundred years ago; presumably it will be shortened again someday to just ‘Dave’. It’s ironic then that old Billy Dresbach’s house, which is still standing downtown, now has the ridiculously long name of ‘Hunt-Boyer-Dresbach House’, which was ok because they developed the technology to make larger envelopes by then. This particular stretch of railroad is near my house in north Davis, where the big metal rail cars are parked for a while so that graffiti artists can finish what they were doing last time. I sometimes run along this way in the mornings. The trains aren’t always here; I came back a couple of days later to draw another section but it had gone. It’s been a while since I drew the trains, but I was just so into all the colourful graffiti I couldn’t decide which cars to draw, so I did a panorama. Workmen clanged about by a rail car further to my right, welding this and that, while I listened to an Adam Buxton podcast, an interview with Torvill and Dean. If I had interviewed Torvill and dean I would not have been able to stop myself from doing the music, pa-paa-pa-paa-pa-paa-papapa, the one they did for the cinemas. And then there would have been an awkward silence, and Torvill and Dean would have said, um, yeah, this is awkward, um, that wasn’t us. And then I would realize that I was thinking of Pearl and Dean. Which would be embarrassing, but at the same time would make a funny story to tell people later. Especially if it was true. I would have asked Dean if he still heard from Pearl, and for balance I would have asked Torvill if she still saw Keith Harris. Look I was a kid when they were famous, yeah. There were lots of double acts when I was a kid, it was hard to tell them all apart. I was always drawing, I was too busy to lift my head up to actually pay attention to anything, unless it was Tottenham, or Formula 1. Oh how times have changed. But there were a lot of double acts, you had Rod Hull and Emu, you had Rod Jane and Freddy, you had Little and Large, you had Cannon and Ball, you had Hoddle and Waddle, you had Dempsey and Makepeace, basically everyone was a double act. At this point in my pretend interview with Torvill and Dean they are getting ready to walk out, but I convince them to stay, that I would take it seriously. And as soon as they do I’d say, I’m skating on thin ice now eh. I have personally only ice-skated once in my life, when I was 15 years old, in Austria while I was on a school exchange trip. I couldn’t do it. It was cold, I fell over a lot, I had absolutely no idea how people actually moved. People would get on the ice and suddenly off they went. I actually took my skates back and said the batteries need changing. I also had Gluhwein for the first and last time then too, I think it was more glue than wine.

The graffiti looks good on the side of these trains though, adds a lot of colour and turns them into a moving art gallery. I don’t live so close to the railroads that I hear them at night any more, but when I lived in south Davis I was a little closer to the main line that runs east-west and at 1am when the big long mile-long cargo train would roll through it would make my apartment rumble slightly. Even here though we do feel the vibrations of the earth moving slightly, it’s not earthquakes, it’s those long trains. Or maybe it’s bears or something. I liked drawing this panorama though. Click on the image for a closer view.