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.

Hamburg

We've had a few days in Hamburg, which has the biggest miniature railway layout in the world. It was Son's fine idea that a visit to this should be Mr Life's 70th birthday present (in May, but somehow this was the soonest that we could fit it into our packed schedule) and Mr Life was A VERY HAPPY CHAP.

When I tell you that we arrived at 9.30am and didn't leave till 5pm, this may give you an idea of how big it is.

There were nice little touches for the lesser-railway-enthusiast of the species. These people were taking a risk! There was a sheer drop to their right.

And look at this Venice bag snatching incident! The poor old chap with the plaster clearly fell down while crossing a bridge; easy to do (she said with feeling).

And we did other things too. This is Hamburg's new concert hall, built at a cost of 789 million Euros. Let's hope that roof doesn't spring a leak any time soon.

We visited the Hamburg history museum and, wonder of wonders, they too have a working model train layout. Not so enormous as the other one, but still pretty substantial and this one is 1-gauge, which is very exciting and unusual (evidently). So that was a very nice surprise for Mr L.

Their Botanic Gardens aren't (sorry, Hamburg) a patch on ours, and I wouldn't have given planning permission for that Radisson Blu looming over it.

I shall go to my grave not understanding modern art. Here, from the Hamburg Art Gallery, we have a whole lot of Woolmarks. "This becomes a critique of the modern world trapped in itself, appearing to repeat and reaffirm itself perpetually." That's what the notice said, so it must be right. 

This is much more my sort of thing: Frederick the Wise, John the Steadfast and John Frederick the Magnanimous, Electors of Saxony, painted by Lucas Cranach, 1472-1553. I love those faces, though I'm not sure that Cranach has quite captured the essence of magnanimity. Maybe he didn't intend to. Possibly John Frederick was a bit mean with his commission money.

And look at this! It makes the eyes go a bit funny but it's certainly got a vanishing point. Well done, Wilhelm Schubert von Ehrenberg, 1637-1676. He died young, poor chap.

And this silver jug! Willem Claez. Heda, 1594-1680 or 1682 (he lived a long time) - very good indeed, sir.

And this still life - sorry, painter, I neglected to note down your name, but I salute you.

Look at these stones! You can almost feel their hard shininess.

And then we came home again and went up to visit Son and The Unbloggable Toddler, who is so lovely, so chatty and very good at bouncing.

And because of all this visiting and being visited and so on, I haven't done any patchworking since June, when I decided to do a border of half-square triangles to add to the middle bit of the quilt for my niece. This now seems a very rash and ambitious decision and I'm not sure I can do it. But enough of these feeble procrastinations: off I go to try.