Auld Reekie

As you can see from the photo it was blue skies and sunshine all round today. What you cannot see from the photo are the goosebumps on my skin exposed to a ‘feel like’ -3°. It was very frosty and probably icy underfoot in parts of the city, but in the centre the tourist footfall aided by liberal salting, made it safe for the bus pass owners to venture abroad.

These new chimneys are probably not in use any more but must have been rebuilt lately in a like for like refurbishment. It’s no wonder that Edinburgh was called ‘Auld Reekie’ in the days when every tenement had a bank of chimneys just like these pouring out dirty smoke.

The sunshine inspired me to make a start on sorting out His Lordship’s cupboard of walking and cycling ‘stuff’. He had the reputation amongst my family of being a minimalist-they had not seen the hoard of clutter behind his cupboard door. Nevertheless it always makes me sad to know that at the end, one’s lifetime’s goods and chattels can be contained in a black sack for the charity shop.