Summer is Here!

Summer is here today! Flimsy dresses and hip hugging shorts for the girls and T shirts or bare chests for the boys; pity the poor graduates in kilts and heavy jackets parading through the streets after their graduations.

However, His Lordship and I are of an age when we dress accordingly, so no bare chests or hip hugging shorts for us, but nevertheless, I was in short sleeves with bare arms for the first time in at least a year, although HL couldn't quite divest himself of the outer layer of his clothing.

We took a walk on the wild side along from Belford Bridge to Stockbridge following the Water of Leith. It was shady and beautiful by the river which used to sport several mills along its way.

We passed St Bernards's Well built in 1810, incorporating a statue of Hygena, the Goddess of Health in a pavilion based on a Roman model.
It was built after a mineral spring was discovered, the waters of which the locals drank for health reasons.
After falling into disrepair, it has recently been restored to its former glory.

Arriving in Stockbridge, which to us southsiders is about as unfamiliar a place in Edinburgh as it can get, we sat at a table outside with a coffee and watched the world go by. As His Lordship remarked, why bother to go abroad on holiday when you can do this on home territory. The answer of course is that summer only comes to these parts rarely, but today it did.

I liked this image of a couple on the other side of the river admiring the view of St Bernard's Well.