Putting things into Perspective

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow." ~ G.K. Chesterton

Things are beginning to look up today. In the early hours, using my exceptional computer maintenance talents due to sheer luck I was able to recover the rest of my photographs. Looks like the disk is cuffed though as I'm still having problems with the partition. Time to look out that receipt...

Perspective was my word of the day today. To paraphrase that great philosopher, Rick Blaine, "it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one little person don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world". No matter how bad things get in my private universe, it's nothing compared to the real suffering that is going on all over the world. I am and have been extremely lucky in my life and I just wanted to apologise for being a moody wee b'stard over the past couple of days! Unfortunately he's part of my make up so it's likely he will reappear every now and again, but he won't stay long. Promise!

So, armed with my words of the day I wandered up into town. As promised this was a walk, to try and balance out last night's dinner. According to my wee phone gizmo I clocked up 6.8 miles in my 3 hour jaunt. Think that should cover me!

The problem with photographing Edinburgh's monuments is that they've all been seen a million times and it's very tricky to find something that's a little unique. It's ironic then, that the shot I finally selected was probably the most classic composition of the three I shortlisted for today's blip. Go figure! It will just have to be my own take in the treatment to give it (hopefully) a little uniqueness.

Looking up from the west end of Princes Street Gardens to the castle. In the foreground is the Ross Fountain. Following it's display in The Great Exhibition of 1862, the French cast iron fountain was bought for the City of Edinburgh by philanthropist Daniel Ross and erected in 1872. The base relief shows mermaids. Four female forms depicting science, the arts, poetry and industry sit above. I'm not sure what the pole dancer represents!

The final location for the fountain wasn't universally welcomed. The Dean of nearby St. John's Episcopal Church described it as "grossly indecent and disgusting".

If you are interested, the other shortlisted blips for today were this statue of David Livingstone and the Scott Monument. For a long time this was the front-runner, but I know this extreme perspective isn't everyone's cup of tea. The second was a more conventional image of the Scott Monument, but a close crop I'd never seen before (although I'm sure both will exist somewhere).