Castle traipsin'

The week, it is over. Or, at least, my whirlwind week in which my youngest sister flew across the pond to visit me here in Edinburgh before we popped down to London for all of about 48 hours. It was maaarvelous! Exhausting, of course, but time simply disappeared and we had so much fun checking out my regular haunts and new places too.

One of the things we did, that I had been meaning to do for some time, was catch the bus to see Craigmillar Castle. It's within the city limits of Edinburgh so there's hardly an excuse to not go, and we were not disappointed! It was a veeeerrry windy day so on a couple of occasions we were feeling a little... precarious on the parapet. It was difficult to hold cameras straight, let along keep hair whipping in front of the lenses! But it was so fun to climb around seemingly endless stairwells and along countless levels -- it's amazing to imagine what the place must have been like when it had its original floors... a veritable maze.

Hope you're all enjoying a happy weekend. I'll get a few more photos up from the rest of our trip (I didn't take too many photos, so the posts are brief, but it's something!)... Soon! :D

Cheers!
Kate xx

 P.S. Check out that jet stream Saltire-in-the-sky in the first photo! Couldn't have coordinated my sister's welcome to Scotland any better than that... ;)

Slackin'.

Well, the sun's been out. That's pretty much my excuse for not blogging as much. Aside from also having four essays in-progress and a dissertation I've been planning, but I digress. It's been a little bit warmer in Edi and although it's been a little bit cloudy, it hasn't really rained in several days. Even the cloudy days still maintained a sort of brightness rather than that heavy, dark kind of overcast.

AND MY SISTER'S COMING TO VISIT!!

She'll be here tomorrow evening, so I've been cleaning and busy buying treats! :)

I don't think I mentioned it on the blog specifically, but my Instagram feed topped a Buzzfeed list of accounts based in Edinburgh that you can totally check out here: 15 Instagram Accounts That Will Make You Want to Move to Edinburgh Immediately so I've been living up my teensy-tiny slice of internet fame! Haha. What was so fun about that list was that about half of those accounts were already mutual followers, and it's spurred a more organized Edinburgh Instagram group. (Yes, nerdy. Yes, cool.) So now we're all keeping track of one another like it's some kind of special club. WELL IT IS.

On the downside, my phone has been acting up/shutting off and it's been difficult to take photos with it. Sounds like an excuse, but it's massively frustrating, so hopefully when I get that all sorted, I'll be able to post some more photos... more regularly. Because, I freely admit, all my photos are taken with my iPhone and I ain't ashamed.

I hope you all are having a marvelous March -- can't believe it's half over already!!

Cheers,
Kate x

Fergus Jordan's 'Under Cover of Darkness'

I posted about my visit to the BookMarket the other day, and one of the treasures I came away with was a photography book, 'Under Cover of Darkness,' of the work of Fergus Jordan, Belfast-based photographer and researcher. I was drawn into the moody, almost ominous atmosphere of his photos, which focus on the city at night. They have an ethereal, eerie quality that plays into our innate uneasiness, even suspicion of the dark. Knowing as we do how darkness can seem to envelope us and cut off our access visibly and psychologically to the space around us, Jordan's work taps into this feeling of uneasiness, mystery and curiosity about what lies beyond what we cannot see. In some cases, street lamps have been edited out of the photo, so a pool of light dimly illuminates a street but confusingly there is no light source. I like these little tricks.

All the works below are from the Under Cover of Darkness series.

Blacklight (2011)

On the Periphery of the New Lodge, X (2010)

Mutual Distrust (2009)

Unknown Territories, Belfast, V (2009)

Enhanced Visibility, IX (2009)

All photos are via Fergus Jordan's marvelously comprehensive and informative website, which I definitely urge you to check out to find much more of his work and his writing as well!

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Patrick Geddes Steps

Patrick Geddes Steps, 4 March 2014, 11:45pm.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: St. Giles

St. Giles High Kirk in the evening, 3 March 2014.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Gladstone's Land

Kite with prey, Gladstone's Land sign, Edinburgh Royal Mile, 3 March 2014.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Cascade

Late morning just above the west end of Grassmarket (the Castle is towering behind me). That's the Edinburgh College of Art building crowning the pile. 25 February 2014, 10:30am.

Cheers!

Kate xx

Snap: Hidden in plain sight

It's so easy to walk right by this little view! Near the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, 23 February 2014, 12pm.

Cheers!

Kate xx

Snap: Bad photo

This is such a terrible photo! So bad! However, I love it. It was taken from a bus on a small country road in Fife near the National Trust for Scotland property, Hill of Tarvit where I had spent the day at a workshop about conservation. It was starting to get a little dreary, the hills in the distance were shrouded in fog, the bus was all over the place on the narrow, winding road. I managed to snap this the moment before my phone died, and even though there is absolutely everything wrong with it from a photography point of view, I can't help totally digging the color and the atmosphere that still comes through even though it's not even in focus. This is what it looked like.

Fife, 20 February 2014, 4:30pm.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Springy spring

I ran down to Princes Street to do a little shopping and on my way back to my flat I had to stop and admire Princes Street Gardens. Late on a Monday morning it was pretty quiet, but it smelled earthy and warm, and the sun was out just enough to have dried the benches. The hillside was covered in crocuses and I couldn't resist sitting down for a few minutes with the coffee I'd just bought, listening to the bagpiper playing above the National Gallery's cafe. I can't wait for some leaves to start popping out on trees, but my, this is a good start.

So looking forward warmer temperatures, too!

Cheers,
Kate xx

Snap: Garden house

The little house in Princes Street Gardens, 16 February, 10:45am.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Princes Street

Princes Street on Sunday morning, still quiet, 16 February 2014, 9:30am.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Castle Rock

Greyfriars Kirkyard and Edinburgh Castle from The Elephant House dining room,

11 February 2014, 9:30am.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Abbeyhill

Abbeyhill, Edinburgh, 7 February 2014, 11am.

Cheers,

Kate xx

The seaside in winter

The sun was out in full force on Friday morning, so I took advantage of it and decided to hike it down to Portobello. It truly is a hike, at a bit over three miles, but it was a pretty straight shot for the most part, and I thought it would be worth it to just see the beach.

And it was, in a way. Portobello is considered part of Edinburgh, but it was, in the not-so-distant past, a separate town, so it still has a High Street that functions as its own downtown even though suburban housing and retail complexes connect it to the city at large now. Portobello is also the 'Edinburgh's seaside,' with a promenade beachside attractions like ice cream shops and an arcade. I arrived just as Friday school was letting out, so there were children everywherrre! After stopping for a brie and cranberry panini at a basic takeaway place, I had lunch and watched a ton of families walk by on their way home. But by that time there were a few more clouds covering the sun and making it feel chillier on the waterfront.

Other than that, and the dogs running around on the beach, it was pretty quiet. It's February after all, but there's always something a little quirky and surreal about seaside towns when it's not even remotely warm enough to do much of anything beachy. It was windy and chilly, so I only spent a little while walking along the promenade before hitching a ride on a bus back to the city center (which incidentally broke down so it took a lot longer, but at least I didn't have to walk three miles back!).

It was really nice to get out of the middle of town for the afternoon and see a different side of this city.

Cheers,
Kate xx

Snap: Clear as day

View from kitchen, 6 February 2014, 2pm.

It's so clear, you can see further hills in the distance, in Fife. Not always the case. ;)

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: On the way

Howe Street, Edinburgh, 2 February 2014, around 1pm.

Cheers,

Kate xx

Sunny sun!

A few things: it's February and it feels so springlike, I can hardly believe it. February, historically and from a Wisconsin point of view, has always been my least-loved month. There was always a bunch of old, crusty, dirty snow on the ground, it was cold and dreary, and the whole point is that it has felt that way for the last two or three months! When will it eeeend?? Without a doubt, the shortest month still felt like the longest.

Not so in Edinburgh. Either it's been mild and I've lucked the heck out, or else if I had to deal with winter somewhere, dealing with it here just ain't so shabby.

Also, I have a particular fondness for mornings when the sun is out and the sky is blue, but the ground is wet from a recent rain. Nothing rivals shiny cobblestones when they glisten in optimistic sunshine.

The days are getting noticeably longer, the sun is getting a little higher in the sky. I almost need sunglasses now! There are birds chirping in the trees and some hearty spring blossoms popping. Yesterday as I walked home from class around 4:30, people were sitting outside cafes in sweatshirts, listening to the buskers and sipping coffee. A sure sign of spring if I ever saw one.

I gave a class presentation yesterday which may very well turn out to be my last. I shouldn't hold my breath, but personally, presentations are one of my least favorite things about university. I've just been to the library (en route to which these photos were taken quickly) and apart from spending some time outdoors now that the weather seems promising, some studying is about to go down.

Spring is always the toughest term as the weather begins to turn nice, don't you find? Categorize that under 'things I forgot about being in college.'

Cheers!
Kate xx

Snap: Light and shadows

The White Hart Inn, Grassmarket, 5 February 2014, 10:30am

Cheers,

Kate xx

Snap: Work in progress

Royal Mile, 5 February 2014, 11:30am

More and more scaffolding goes up along here in these less-trafficky months.

Cheers!

Kate xx