Out of Context

I think from what I’ve seen on TV, this part of Edinburgh and indeed Scotland got off very lightly from storm Arwen. Apart from a broken roof slate and a patio filled with blown leaves I didn’t notice anything catastrophic on my walk into town today. The plastic hoarding down the Mound preventing people from seeing what is happening with the excavation under the National Gallery was blown down in places and I could see that the underground extension is far from ready.

Despite having more Fairisle beanies than a person with a hoard of FairIsle beanies, I was almost the only person not wearing a hat when I ventured out . I hadn’t realised just how cold it was - it was absolutely Baltic. At 3pm it was 2° feeling like -5° in the north wind and it was colder at 9am. It was madness not to have a hat. By the time I got to Princes Street my eyes were streaming and I had an ice cream headache. Daughter #1 had to lend me a woolly hat she had as an extra when I took cake into the Gallery.

The days slip past so quickly at the moment with the short daylight hours. I have walked my socks off today but my feet are up now and the lamps are on, as is the heating. Knitting beckons.

During my walking this morning I took this blip of Nelson Place, off Nelson Street in the New Town. I love the incongruity of its appearance in the classical surroundings of its neighbours.