then rain then the rainbow

Taken on my last train trip back north. Astonishingly noone else noticed the rainbow out of the window.

Cockenzie Power Station

With pang recently I heard that it is going to be pulled down in the summer and replaced with a gas fired one. Its been there since 1965. In 1977 I came to Scotland and visited my great Aunt Mary who lived in Ravensheugh the ancestral home just outside Musselburgh. The house was filled with a fine black dust which came from the ash from the power station. The garden infront of the house used to open straight onto the sea. We would find sea shells in the garden beds thrown in over the stone wall in storms. Now the whole bay has been filled in with ash from the power station. I suppose it had to go somewhere. My friend K and I made the most of the bank holiday and hopped onto a 26 bus (making the mistake of getting the one to Tranent instead of Seaton Sands!). However we were rewarded by the most glorious afternoon walking around the building and enjoying the sea air.

The Bridge

I went on an expedition to South Queenferry last week. Its only half an hour from Edinburgh city centre (if roadworks are under control) so it seems a shame I don’t go there more often. I got a lift and we went out as group of 3. Sadly the day I picked turned out to be driech in the extreme. Never mind we holed up in the Hawes Inn and spent the afternoon sipping tea and coffee and commentating on the spectacle of the cruiseliners picking up their passengers who had been sent by coach into Edinburgh for a spot of culture and shopping. The windows of the Hawes Inn are engraved with notes made by people with diamonds but sadly my camera failed to take a decent picture of them. The Inn is famous for being a stopping off point by David Balfour in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped.

The lesson learned go out do it anyway don’t wait for the perfect moment despite the weather we had a very jolly afteroon

World Pinhole Day II

World Pinhole Day

Today I went out with Edinburgh Lo-Fi as part of World Pinhole Day. Elaine of the group had made several film canister pinholes and others brought modified cameras. We fortified ourselves with coffee and then marched up Calton Hill. This was an homage to Hill and Adamson having their studio in Rock House. The hill has spectacular views but was crawling with hippies preparing for Beltane and a very odd group of people marching while waving sticks about in formation. At one point we were drenched by rain and later hail…

around Leith & Water of Leith

Pictures taken on a walk last year.

dog walking in the woods

around The Baltic

The tiny tot at the end was dancing away to a busker outside The Baltic – very cute.

and London Rotterdam Antwerp…

at the stables