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

Springtime in December

The weather has been so strange this week. It is so mild today that it feels very much like spring, and the weather, in true Edinburgh style, could be considered much the same. But I think the weather, changeable as it is, is a year-round thing here ;) Today there's a little sun behind heavy clouds that sometimes drip a little bit, but it's 55F!

I've been trying to narrow down a dissertation topic (the paper that I'm responsible for writing over the summer, a third of my assessed work for my degree), and after taking a brief hike to the art school library this morning (and passing a pretty high-falutin' fashion shoot on the way) to return a book and check out another, I popped over to Starbucks for a coffee and some good old-fashioned reading time. View from my seat, above... Starbucks is not necessarily my favorite place to get coffee, but for studying purposes I'm much more likely to find a table in their relatively large seating area, even when it's busy. And the odds of getting a table by the window are also usually pretty good, because they're almost all window seats.

I've been narrowing down my field of interest to Celtic art, or more correctly in scholarly circles (oooh), Insular art. A couple of faculty members at Edinburgh specialize in medieval illuminated manuscripts, but I'm thinking potentially more along the lines of Irish and Northern British metalwork, or perhaps a focus on the stone carvings and symbols of the Picts. No matter what, we're talking about some pretty old art here... well over 1000 years old. And it's so exciting! I think that officially makes me a nerd?

There are so many periods and movements and eras of art history that I'm interested in, but it seems to always come back to the old stuff. For some reason, the older and more mysterious, and the less information available, the more I want to study it. I'm only three months into this program and I can already tell that it's going to be of great value to have a well-rounded look at many periods of art, and all the better to narrow down what I really want to research. There's a difference between things I like, and those I actually want to devote hundreds of hours to studying!

I'd better get back to it. ;)

Cheers!
Kate x

art on the street

Finally got these up! Apologies for the delay... street art in Old Town, an ever-changing sprawl! There were some changes since the last time I had walked by, but it was colorful and exciting!

As for me, I'm in the throes of essay writing, so work has become more strenuous even as classes near their endpoint. Hard to believe is almost the holiday break already! The postgraduate schedule is slightly more freeform than I'm used to! ;)

Cheers,
Kate x

St. Giles High Kirk

    


The past week has just spun by! It's almost unbelievable that it's already Wednesday. The weekend consisted of amazing weather and even the last couple of days, though windy, were still sunny and comfortable. It's a good gauge of the weather when you have the option of sitting inside or outside at a cafe and even on the first of October, want to sit outside.

Over the weekend I made a quick stop at St. Giles, the cathedral on the Royal Mile. As I've already started to take its hulking shape for granted since I walk by it numerous times every day, I wanted to get inside and explore all of its chapels and side aisles. And my, are there a lot. I thought it was best described in one of the texts for my Scottish Medieval and Renaissance Architecture class that since Scottish communities generally only had one church, the additions of chapels and additional aisles with numerous little altars and tacked-on spaces caused it them to sprawl "crablike" (Scottish Architecture by Glendinning and MacKechnie, Thames & Hudson, 2004). Crablike is right. The aisles and chapels seem to sprawl on and on. Around every corner there seems to be another altar, another pulpit.

I'm glad I stopped in. :) Definitely recommended if you find yourself in Old Town Edinburgh at some point. It's free entry!

Cheers,
Kate x

A good ceiling is hard to find

Doors Open Days Edinburgh (part of a Scotland-wide program of opening historic and noteworthy buildings to the public was this past weekend. I didn't go in as many open doors as I had originally intended, but I did make a point to stop into one of the major historic houses set just off the Royal Mile, Riddle's Court, which is managed by the Scottish Historic Building Trust. By city standards, especially in its 400-year history, it's a mansion. Big enough to have its own courtyard, which in Edinburgh's Old Town, is pretty much unheard of unless you're just rolling in ££!

Although I took a few more photos, only a couple of rooms were open and particularly interesting, and both of their showcase features were their ceilings. I'm a ceiling person. I like decoration, and I especially like when it's borderline ridiculous.



And just in case you're interested in what the view from the window is:



I've been out and about quite a bit lately, and, of course, sincerely trying to do a lot of reading. A real lot. I had to switch bags because I was lugging so many books home from the library. But I've made time to walk around the city, too, of course, checking out new coffee shops, pubs and cafes, and stepping inside places I've passed before but never took a look in.

The weekend was ab.so.lute.ly gorgeous. Both days; it was practically a miracle.

I even touched the Highlands yesterday! I've now been out of the city twice, one for a school field trip to a beautiful contemporary art installation garden called Little Sparta (more on that soon), and then a full day trip, all touristy-like up toward Loch Katrine and the eastern edge of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Heeland Coos coming right up!

In the meantime, here's a different cow!



Cheers,
Kate x