meteorology of a walk…

I always say, you don’t come to Scotland for the weather…take last Saturday for example, a lovely day for here around 20 odd degrees, look, that is actually the sun, you can see it lighting up the Scottish parliament. There it is hiding beneath turf landscaping behind the dandelions or are they goats beard??? should have checked for that tell tale hollow stem (see previous post)  and buttercups…

…and there is the castle doing the same thing, but oh oh, where has the sun gone???

never mind, even the animals are performing for the camera…and he can relax, rook eating season is over…

so anyway, knew it was too good to last, that’s THE WEATHER you can see rolling in from fife over the forth…i took it as my cue to get down off the mountain…

…and sure enough, twenty minutes later…

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There is a new mvp website for a separate project, click here to go to requested portraits website.

swans way…

Taking one if my usual constitutional routes, i came upon this bevy (or eyrar??…i just found that one out myself) of swans, i guess they were a bit bored with St Margaret’s loch. I thought it made kind of a surreal scene, like they had just come down from a walk on the mountain…

(click on photos for larger version)

…and i have started to see loads of baby rabbits, been trying to photograph them for weeks but until now its been impossible to snap them as they are very jittery, then i came upon this little  one on a walk round Arthur’s Seat. There were 2 of them in fact, utterly fearless, gorging themselves silly on young plants. They were round and plump and a little larger than my hand, and they let me take all the photos i wanted of them…

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stop motion bunny with nettles (without…as ever… tripod…):

views from a hill…

Its bloomin’ freezing around these parts, but it make s for pretty sunsets…

Edinburgh sky on fire from the foot of the Crags

forth road and rail bridges silhouetted by the setting sun, seen from up on the Crags…

the view from Blackford hill (click on all the images for better views)

Blooming Gorse (or is it broom? i mix them up…) with Arthur’s seat and the Crags, currently turning bright yellow with the flowering plant. The flowers incidentally smell a little of coconut and i have found recipes  to make wine and beer from them amongst other things.

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meadows on fire…

for a better resolution photo click here

Walking home across the meadows near sunset the other night. No lights are on in that building in the distance (Edinburgh Uni’s Appleton Tower i think), it is entirely lit up by the low (still) wintry setting sun reflecting on all its windows, it looked like it was on fire.

I only just noticed the tiny human figures on Arthur’s seat, you can just about see them, tiny little stick people right at the top – doesn’t matter when it is, there always seems to be someone at the top of Arthur’s seat – (they always make me think about the tiny coffin figures from a previous post).

ghosts…

Edinburgh is full of ghosts. These strange little figures in miniature pine coffins were found buried on Arthur’s Seat in 1836.

the craggs and arthur’s seat

No one knows much about them but there has been speculation as to their use and origins ever since…17 were found in total and some say they represent a mock burial of the 17 victims of infamous murderers Burke and Hare. Like i said, Edinburgh is full of ghosts.

London Times, July 20, 1836:

That, early in July, 1836, some boys were searching for rabbits’ burrows in the rocky formation, near Edinburgh, known as Arthur’s Seat. In the side of a cliff, they came upon some thin sheets of slate, which they pulled out.

Little cave.

Seventeen tiny coffins.

Three or four inches long.

In the coffins were miniature wooden figures. They were dressed differently in both style and material. There were two tiers of eight coffins each, and a third one begun, with one coffin.

The extraordinary datum, which has especially made mystery here:

That the coffins had been deposited singly, in the little cave, and at intervals of many years. In the first tier, the coffins were quite decayed, and the wrappings had moldered away. In the second tier,  the effects of age had not advanced to far. And the top coffin was quite recent looking.

for a more detailed article click here