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

Snap: Light and shadows

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

Cheers,

Kate xx

Lost on purpose in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a huge pile. Literally, buildings are stacked on top of one another. They brace hillsides, depend on one another for support, cling to one another, and provide all sorts of intriguing passageways. Old Town specifically is just a mass of gables, turrets and dormers. It's incredible when you're trying to navigate narrow and winding streets, let alone when viewed from a distance.

I've tried to make a point every day that I've been here, to go somewhere new. Even if it's just a couple blocks over from somewhere I've already been, if it means trying a new coffee shop or a different cafe, I'm all for it. And one thing I love to do when I'm in an unfamiliar city is to get purposely lost. There is no better way to understand your surroundings than to get lost.

When you don't know where you are, your senses are automatically heightened. Call it anxiety if you wish, but you've done it on purpose, so you're not that anxious. But you're that much more in tune with what's around you, because you're inherently trying to figure it out. This way or that way? Take the corner or go straight? Up the stairs or down the stairs? Along the waterway or over it? The choices are aplenty and every one you make will lead you in a slightly different direction. There are infinite routes!



I live a block away from Edinburgh Castle, firmly set in Old Town, but it has a tendency to sometimes feel cramped and crowded with so many tourists and such narrow walkways and streets. Down the steps (or around the castle) and into New Town, the roads are wider, the sidewalks are wider, and there are just as many trendy, if somewhat slightly more upscale cafes and restaurants. I found possibly the best coffee in town, Wellington Coffee, which serves simple pastries and a very minimal yet exceptional coffee menu. No flavors, just coffee! More on them later, I think...



There are some great flowers in the Princes Street Gardens, but of course it's getting to be autumn so some of them are starting to look a little droopy. The color, however, on a cloudy day, is much appreciated.



I continued north through New Town until I happened upon a bridge over a small waterway, and saw a sign pointing to a walkway beside the water. It turned out the walkway was part of a long, winding pathway system called the Water of Leith, of which I actually ended up seeing only a very little. I might have to make a point to do it from one end to the other eventually. It's 12 miles altogether, so it would be quite a hike in one go, but it might be cool to break it up and do parts here and there.


  



I wound back into down and walked up Dundas Street. And perhaps the best moments go undocumented, but just as I was taking this photo, a guy off to the left of the frame started hollering for me to take a photo of him and he worked very hard to flex his biceps for me. A missed opportunity. Obviously. ;)

Eventually I also scouted out the Edinburgh Farmers Market, but more on that next time!

Cheers,
Kate x

   

"The earth laughs in flowers."

I'm just a leeeeeettle obsessed with how much the flowers have just gone bonkers suddenly! It's spring! It's spring! It feels like summer, but my, how it is spring. It was worth the long wait. It seemed to take forever for the trees to turn green, let alone for anything to flower, but with a couple days of good rain followed by sun and summer-like temperatures... the neighborhoods are heavy with unbelievable blossoms. I don't think I've ever noticed them so intense. And our own little lilac bush, never in the sunniest spot, has more flowers on it than I've seen in recent memory.

Just a little obsessed. ;)

All of these were taken around the house. The plant life is simply taking over. I love it! And the quote in the post title is attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

On a separate, less lovely note, I was unfortunately not selected for the majorest of the major scholarships for school. Although I'm awaiting the verdict on one last opportunity, I'm pretty set to throw in all my chips and take out loans. It's the way it works, but at least from here on out I can focus on the school-and-travel aspect of things -- visa, airfare, accommodation, etc. -- rather than money, money, money, all the time money. It really is tiresome, and there is so much more to be enjoyed and looked forward to than how much it's all going to cost.

It will be worth it!

Days to Edinburgh move-in: 110

Good morning, sunshine.

Nothing beats the beauty of early morning in the spring and summer. It has always been my favorite time of day, although I usually begrudged having to wake up early to enjoy it. It's a Catch 22, you see. However, I've been waking up much earlier recently.

When I was young, and traveled to art fairs with my dad in the summertime, we would be up super early to go set up his paintings at the show. We'd sometimes grab a doughnut, or waffles at Bill Evans, but it was that sense of purpose, early in the morning when the air was already warm, that I still feel when I get up early.

And sometimes I think about a weekend trip I took to the Welsh countryside in Spring of 2006, where, staying at the amazingly-located Baskerville Hall Hotel in a bunk room with seven other girls, I got up at the crack of dawn and went for a walk by myself down winding roads, around quilted hills. It was magical, and I remember it still today. It's those little moments that mean the most, and something about the promise of a new day and the clarity of the morning sun make morning an experience in itself.

P.S. The cat is a family cat, Roxie. She was curious about the flowers this morning, too.

Days to Edinburgh Move-In: 123