Autumn in the city

We went to the City Art Gallery today and then walked through Princes Street Gardens.

The centre of Edinburgh is fairly spectacular.

Autumn colours show it off nicely.

This is the Ross Fountain, which has recently been refurbished and painted in these rather startling colours, having been rusty brown for as long as I can remember. It's very unScottish-looking, but then it was actually made in France and it's thought that this is what it may have originally looked like. It was shown in the London Great Exhibition of 1862 and bought for £2000 (a LOT of money) by Daniel Ross, a gunmaker - clearly a profitable occupation, hmm - and installed in its current position in 1872.

The strange clutter of buildings that make up the Castle is very dear to my heart.

I'm interested in this flower bed in Atholl Crescent. The council has been giving us lots of permanent planting like this over the past few years, rather than bedding plants. I suppose it's cheaper and more environmentally friendly as well as more natural-looking. Behind it you can see typical New Town buildings.

The plants have been well chosen to give colour for most of the year.

And then we walked along the river and home.

Sewing wonky items

Littlest Granddaughter likes putting things over her wrist (and round her neck - such as electrical cables) so I decided to make her a tiny little lined tote bag to carry around on her wrist. And here it is. I post it not because it's a miracle of craftswomanship - which it certainly isn't - but just because I'm surprised at my (slightly wonky) achievement. I did use to make things when I was younger - not clothes (much) but loose covers for the odd chair, drawstring bags for nursery shoes and so on. And I do make curtains and cushion covers, though haven't done this much in recent years. But I'd sort of forgotten that I used to like doing such things. Quilting has reminded me and it's down to Thimbleanna, who exerted gentle but firm persuasion to get me started on that - thank you, Anna!

And of course Mr Google helps a lot nowadays.

As usual, we had the Edinburgh grandchildren this afternoon.

As usual, they were very busy.

We're so lucky. They're now seven and five - years which have gone in a flash. In the same time again, they'll be fourteen and twelve and getting all grown up. I need to get in lots of cuddles before they're too sophisticated to want to come to Granny's on their school half-day!

Autumn rambling

It's been lovely weather for walking and we've been doing just that, both in town, as above, and along the canal, as below. The autumn colours haven't been as good as in recent years, presumably because it's been too warm or dry or something.

There have been a couple of frosty mornings but these Michaelmas daisies seem undeterred.

As do these thistly things.

It must have been a while since we walked along there: these chaps have now appeared beside the path. They look a bit disapproving.

The sun was very low in the sky as we ended our walk and it was still only 3pm, though of course the clocks have gone back so it felt like 4 o'clock really.

Isn't it splendid to be retired and have the freedom to do this sort of thing? How lucky are we?

Big heads, little feet etc

Doesn't life whizz by, and isn't it odd to consider that fairly soon (in whizzing terms) it'll go on zooming along without one? I'm 68 now. Maybe 10 good years, if I'm lucky, and that's nothing. But meanwhile, Grandson made me up a set of instructions for drawing flames.

He told me about the moai on Easter Island and drew a picture of one. I knew about the big heads but I didn't know that they were called moai. Some of them have bodies beneath the surface but I think that Harley Quinn from the Lego Batman movie (something else I know very little about) is probably not lurking in an underground cave nearby.

Biggest Granddaughter drew her toy guinea pig chatting to her toy bunny. She's at school now; very grown-up.

Son-in-Law 1 and I took them to the Glasgow Science Centre and they got very wet doing experiments with water. I didn't notice that No Climbing notice till afterwards.

Mr Life and I went for a walk in East Lothian with our walking friends on a perfect autumn day.

So lovely.

Then Son and Daughter-in-Law came for a couple of days with Middle Granddaughter, the Unbloggable Toddler. Here are her cute little boots. She's also very lovely. She now calls us Gwanny and Gwandpa and has accepted us as part of her staff. This makes me very happy, though we'll never see her nearly often enough. Still, I'll have to aim to be the less-frequently-seen but therefore the more exciting grandmother. You think?

Here she is playing in the sandpit.

And here she is sitting on a tractor at Gorgie City Farm.

I went up town today and wondered as I often do (no, not at all biased...) why anyone who liked living in a city would want to live anywhere but here. (Well, or Venice. And possibly Florence, but then - they would be far too hot in the summer.) Though it must have looked even better 100 years ago, without the cars and bins and things painted on the road and various bits of street furniture.

100 years ago, my future granny was working as a sewing maid in Edinburgh and my future grandfather was coming home from the war, having been shot in the hand at Gallipoli.

Away, away

Daughter 2 and her husband have had scarlet fever, so I've been down in London helping to look after the baby. Such a sacrifice! We went to playgroup,

walked by the pond to look at the ducks,

had the odd snooze,

ate some snacks,

wore a sunhat (well, she did - it was warm),

had a birthday (hers) and enjoyed some cake,

and went for more walks.

She is such a sweetie (biased? me?) and it was so nice spending time with her and Daughter 2 (who is now better, as is her husband). I was away for nine days, though, and have had to spend lots of time with the Edinburgh grandchildren since my return, because I missed them (and Mr L) so much. And now I miss Littlest Granddaughter - not to say Middle Granddaughter. Ah me, eheu.

Autumn activities

On Sunday, Daughter 1 and I took the children to The Yard. It's such a great place and such a privilege to be there with those lovely little people.

And then the other day, Mr Life and I went to the exhibition of some of Her Majesty's Canalettos at The Queen's Gallery at Holyrood Palace. Lucky Queen, is what I say. I hadn't ever seen so many Canalettos so close up and I have to report that they're amazing. So much detail. I didn't like to enquire if HM would allow her subjects to take photos, so I took one of this advert when we went to have a coffee afterwards.

We went to Florence and Venice two years ago and the only problem is that it's kind of spoiled the rest of the world for me. Edinburgh is also beautiful as far as cities go, and if you're brought up here you have a tendency to feel slightly meh about other cities, but Venice!!!

Even in this photo under perspex taken by my phone in the cafe (imagine the accent) you can see the beauty of Venice and the detail in the painting. Though of course Canaletto messed around with the position of the buildings to get more of the best ones in each painting.

This is the view from the cafe, with Salisbury Crags behind the trees.

Venice, you don't have a lovely hill in the middle of your city or a very peculiar parliament building opposite one of your many palaces, do you? Still, you do win the most beautiful city (that I've been to) prize, though you're probably not a very convenient city to live in.

I don't want to boast, but look. A border of half-square triangles! And they have points. And reasonably sensible corners. They did take me a long time and quite  a bit of arithmetic... .

The Elixir of Life

Last weekend it was Doors Open Weekend in Edinburgh, so on Saturday we visited a few places. One of them was a pharmaceuticals firm in an interesting old building. They had some of their archives available for inspection, including this one.

This is highly encouraging.

I eat natural yogurt every day.

No premature senility for me. Now I come to think of it, I suppose I'm a bit old for premature senility. Point proved.

We visited a couple of other places, including South Leith Church, which has this amazing ceiling.

It's still quite mild and the garden has lots of colour at the moment. Winter? Months away.

Mr L and I went to the Botanics yesterday, where the foliage is colouring up fpr autumn,

though these poppies bloom bravely on.