East Claremont Street

Neo-classical stateliness that is East Claremont Street, here on a map.

Sea of Yellow

Clear signs of spring alongside the Middle Meadow Walk earlier today!

Victoria Park

This is a view of Victoria Park from Newhaven Road, with Victoria's son King Edward VII surveying the grounds on her behalf. The park itself was created in 1919 and was once known as Bonnington Park, after Bonnington Park House. It is now part of a Conservation Area that includes 'the Dudleys' and Summerside Place.

Spring is coming!!

Crocuses in Victoria Park.

Cold, cold January

So yesterday was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year? No money left after Christmas, no holidays in sight, no sunlight, hmm... well how about a nice cheerful picture to represent this particular state of mind!? (And no this picture was not taken as or converted into B&W...)

Flowers on steps - you don't have to be French...

Can you spot this picture in yesterday's one?

The last roses

I took this picture a few weeks ago so I doubt these roses are still there today. This morning the car thermometer showed 3C so it's certainly getting cold!

Leaves once more

I couldn't help it - one more picture of leaves. It's getting really cold here now, with the first frost even in the city itself and with lots of snow in other parts of Scotland. Could it be winter already?!

Red or green

This tree can't quite make up its mind. The south-facing side has coloured whereas the north-facing side is still green - can anyone explain to me why this is?

Leaves or lungs

Trees are the lungs of the world - anyone else ever noticed the similarity of branches and leaves to veins and tissue?!

Royal Mile 22 - Secret Garden

Along the bottom of the Royal Mile there are some wonderful public gardens tucked away. This one is called Dunbars Close, my favourite one.

Pink ivy

Gorgeous pink ivy on a wall in Old Town. Autumn is coming!

Floral Clock maintenance

Edinburgh's Floral Clock, on the corner of Princes Street and the Mound, is the oldest surviving floral clock in the world. It was commissioned in 1903 and is replanted every year with around 35,000 frost-resistant plants. As part of the Sister City theme day, Nice Daily Photo featured a picture of the clock in all its glory. This one hopefully gives an indication of the painstaking work that's involved maintaining it!

Walking to Work - Water of Leith

I live in the north of Edinburgh and when the weather is good I sometimes walk to my office in town - it takes me about 45 minutes at a steady pace, and as it's uphill most of the way it's pretty good exercise!

This week I've decided to show you some of the views I encounter on my walk to work. This is the view from Newhaven Road looking east along the Water of Leith. I love how the morning sun just catches the spider web on the stone bridge. The Water of Leith is a little river that crosses Edinburgh from the south west to the north east and joins the Forth at the shore in Leith. There is now a path along most of it so it's a wonderful enclave of nature in the city.

Above the Deacon Brodie

This is the Bank Street wall above a famous Edinburgh pub called the Deacon Brodie Tavern, which has its entrance on the Royal Mile. The pub was named after Deacon William Brodie, an Edinburgh man who inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

William Brodie (1741-88) was a well-respected member of the Town Council, and Deacon, or Head of the Incorporation of Wrights and Masons. But although Brodie was a respectable tradesman by day, by night he lived a double life of crime. He used his daytime job to copy the keys of his clients, whom he burgled by night. He also used illicit money to fuel his expensive lifestyle which included mistresses and a gambling habit. Brodie was eventually found out, tried and hanged.

Wine leaves?

Drinking wine al fresco - who doesn't love summer?! I took this picture from the other side of a beer garden in New Town.

Pretty straggly flowers

This is the last photograph in my 'ode to green spaces' series. I have no idea what these flowers are called (suggestions please?) and should probably point out that I can take no credit whatsoever for the state of the garden; our wild and wonderful bit of green space is the work - and sometimes that means laissez faire - of our neighbour Frank.

I'll be back from London tomorrow and look forward to catching up on all your posts over the last four days.

Lily? No Iris actually!

Here is the latest in the series of flowers from my garden, which is inhabited by a substantial number of foxgloves, buttercups, a large clematis and general weeds. But I was amazed to find this beauty in amongst the rest - and even more amazed that I actually managed to capture its delicacy rather succesfully (I'm normally not so good at these things). One more tomorrow, then I will hopefully have emerged from the city where there are very few flowers and very many people!

Foxgloves

And here's the second installment of my 'ode to green spaces' - same bee! (I'm still away.)

Ode to green spaces

I'm going to be away for a few days so I am posting a series of photos of flowers - and the occasional bee - that I took in our garden this morning. Let they be an ode to green spaces - and enjoy them while I'm enjoying London!