Tag: stleonardscrag

Old Town Edinburgh

~ windinmywheels ~ 6 Comments
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I’ve heard Edinburgh described as ‘an achingly beautiful city’ and wondered what such an ache might feel like. But that was before I came to live here. Now, I ache too – owing, paradoxically, to the kind of being surprised by joy that brings tears to a person’s eyes, peals of laughter, stunned silence, and animated, deep, and fascinated conversations.

Every single yard one walks, and corner one turns, and flight of steps taken, up or down, there’s so much history, and story, and art and science, and engineering and architecture and craftsmanship, one comes, properly and fittingly, to feel both small and gratefully enlarged at one and the same time.

Edinburgh is, literally, extra-ordinary, and something about its very air imbues confidence. Yes, confidence – all around the city, and in persons; something I’ll think upon, over and over, as I revisit this growing collection of photographs, which, in every case, and in an instant, bring back precisely what it felt like to be there, then, awed, as I pressed the shutter button …

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The kind of day I love

~ windinmywheels ~ 12 Comments
… the kind of day I love

From morning to this late evening I’ve revelled in the kind of day I love best – corresponding with, speaking with, or reading, or holding the work and gift of friends who are able to express themselves exquisitely. Home here, some days, whilst it’s still a bit chilly outside, is a lovely place to snuggle down on the sofa, surrounded by books and letters, phone near to hand – and just ‘hear’ and converse with the life and lives I’m fortunate enough to have a share in.

Today’s family and friends all know who they are, some very near, some very far from here, and I thank them for being who they are, and for the myriad ways in which – expressing themselves through writing, or painting, or sculpture, handiwork, hospitality, culinary skills, or deep, honest, fluid conversation about their passions, their present, their remembrance, their enthusiasms, their histories, doubts, joys, hurts and sorrows, their likes and loves, great giftedness, and so much else besides – they touch my life deeply, and ‘raise me up’ daily.

Oh, how we need each other – and it’s good to celebrate one another, every day …

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Edinburgh Towards Evening

~ windinmywheels ~ 6 Comments
Canongate Kirk & Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh
Topping and Company Booksellers, Blenheim Place
Topping and Company Booksellers, Blenheim Place
Leopold Place, Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s giraffes: nicknamed Martha and Gilbert, were made from scrap metal including parts from cars and motorbikes
The inscription surrounding the sculpture is from a poem by Roy Campbell, written in 1946, and reads

Giraffes! a People
Who live between earth and skies
Each in his own religious steeple
Keeping a lighthouse with his eyes

from edinburgh.org
Martha and Gilbert
Calton Hill
Evening settles on Edinburgh
The Royal Mile Gallery
Flodden Wall – the World’s End
Part of what remains of the Flodden Wall – bottom of St Mary’s Street / Pleasance, Edinburgh

From an extinct volcano, to the panoramic view of the city and her coastline from Salisbury Crags; to a bookshop that took care not to ‘strip’ the original house that is now its home, and instead built bookshelves around what had long been intended; to extraordinary skies, and sculpture with a back-story; to one of the world’s finest universities; to a modern parliament building whose walls are engraved with poetry; to some of the most elegant residential architecture you’ll see anywhere in the world – that is also home to the echoes of housemaids and butlers, lairds and ladies, surgeons, architects, engineers and plumbers – who loved and sometimes hated this beautifully laid city; gateway to the world for some, too small a world, indeed once the World’s End, for others. Today, Edinburgh has something for everyone, and everyone has something for Edinburgh – for this is a city long engaged in writing the fascinating stories of innumerable people’s lives, now including my own …

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Sunday afternoon amble

~ windinmywheels ~ 3 Comments
Dynamic Earth Exhibition, (link) – Holyrood, Edinburgh
The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel next to The Palace of Holyroodhouse (link)
The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel
Croft-An-Righ Cottage, Holyrood
The United States’ Consulate General, (link) Edinburgh
New Calton Burial Ground (link) & Holyroodhouse
‘Tombs with a View – !’
New Calton Burial Ground (link) and The Queen’s Gallery (link)
The Stevenson Family Tomb – here of the parents of Robert Louis Stevenson
The Tomb of John Drysdale, Builder in Edinburgh (of considerable note), 1829
New Calton Burial Ground Watchtower (see below)
‘resurrectionists’
Edinburgh’s last gas lamp – in its original position, 1839
Spring-looking sky and birdsong

I wake up pretty much every morning in Edinburgh wondering just how many more surprises a day in this city will bring. I’ve long ago lost count – every day is full of them – but in a strange way.

Edinburgh makes you feel you’ve always known her, whether you’re standing outside the modern parliament buildings or reading the weathered inscription on a grave dating back to the 1600s. It’s as though you keep bumping into people you know, or knew, anyway, at some point in your life – Robert Louis Stevenson, for example, this warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. And a great Edinburgh builder by the name of John Drysdale, who died in 1829. And you’re trying to remember the name of the lamplighter who carried his ladder each evening to clamber up Edinburgh’s last gas lamp, still in its original position. You knew him – could almost smell his sweet (toffee?) pipe tobacco in your nostrils, and you’ve a vague idea that he had an affectionate name for this lighthouse, I mean … ah, that was it! – he called this lamp ‘Lighthouse’ – but said the name was someone else’s lovely idea, a tribute, perhaps, in an island pool of light for some come to pray, and others come to stay (the Stevenson engineers having keen interest in lighthouses). Where does the memory originate? How do I recall the children (of a family of 10 who lived in the Watchtower) calling this illuminator ‘Uncle Lamp’ ? – while their Papa seemed only interested in folks called ‘Resurrectionist.’

One thing always leads to another here, and another, and another. I’ve made so many photographs during the course of this afternoon’s walk ‘n’ talk with my equally enthusiastic (and extremely knowledgable) companion, that I’ve decided to spread them over the coming days here on windinmywheels. As I keep discovering here, one can only take in so much at once – even though, as I’ve said, everything seems not only staggeringly, eye-wateringly beautiful but also, somehow and wondrously, familiar …

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Honestly!

~ windinmywheels ~ 2 Comments
feragaia.com

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‘Where nature’s wild forces collide with rugged landscapes, we are inspired to create …’

Honestly – all you need to do is pen a few poetic lines and you can just reel me in! Possessed of a lifetime allergy to alcohol, this may offer a soothing winter’s evening chest-warming. I hope so. I’ve just ordered a (gorgeous looking) bottle. Photos and report-back to follow (obviously 😉). Now to look for some more Scottish poetry …

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Portobello light

~ windinmywheels ~ 2 Comments
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Proximity to the beach is among the many joys I revel in here in Edinburgh. A ten minute bike ride from my door and the views of sand and sea and sky – changing colour literally by the second – root me to the spot.

Much, much warmer than in recent days, it’s nonetheless still windy and decidedly chilly (what else, in February? – I hear you reply). But the scent and the dream of Spring is in the air – in children pedalling tricycles joyously along the prom, in couples laughing whilst doing stretching exercises on the sand, and in something intangible in the very space of the place that seems to be saying ‘phwoar, it’s gonna be great to get beyond lockdown!’ And in Portobello light, that’s right.

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Post-Script

All in an Edinburgh day – from sunlit sea, to sunset, to fireside, to candlelight and shadows during our second power-cut of February 😊

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Abstract

~ windinmywheels ~ 2 Comments

Out and about on my bike today – it’s much, much warmer – so less opportunity for photos. Here’s an abstract though – posted to remind me that I’ve always loved them as an art form, and of the happy half-hour I’ve just spent ‘seeing what can be seen’ in this, or in any abstract. Wonderful tools for stirring imagination.

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