Fully booked

Very different from yesterday - it's drizzled all day and was getting very gloomy by 3pm. I went out for various things this afternoon and though I took the camera, as always, I came home Blip-less.

This is another emergency Blip - a quick pic of my largest bookcase. I have another four, but this lot must represent more than half of my collection. You can see why there's a family rule that books must not be given to me as birthday or Christmas presents! Or maybe should not. I'm reading a lovely book which was a last birthday present from my daughter - 'The Fair Botanists', by Sara Sheridan, set in Edinburgh in 1822, when the New Town was expanding rapidly and the Botanic Garden was being moved from Leith Walk to Inverleith, its present site. A wonderful mix of fact and fiction and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. 

I love the description of the many large trees being trundled down the streets in huge containers on horse drawn carts - this really happened as the photograph I've put on as an extra shows. I've read a few of these fictionalised stories of botanists and plant hunters - it's a great subject! I enjoy reading about old Edinburgh - when I worked in the gardens at Holyrood Palace we lived in the most amazing 'tied house' ever. It was in a small back street by Holyrood Park, Croft-an-Righ, or The King's Field, and was built for the Earl of Moray in 1588! When I moved jobs to Ross Priory we lived in a brand new bungalow in the garden! What a difference!