The Oxford Bar, Edinburgh

Posted on 20 November 2015 by Katrina

We were wandering along a very quiet backstreet of Edinburgh a few weeks ago, searching for a small independent art gallery which had been advertising an exhibition, when we came across The Oxford Bar.

I had always wondered where The Oxford Bar was, it is of course the favourite drinking spot of Rebus, Ian Rankin’s rough but somehow mainly likeable detective. In fact I believe that it’s Ian Rankin’s watering hole too, but we didn’t bother to have a look in to see if he was there. Everyone deserves their pint in peace I think. Or maybe he’s a hauf and a hauf man – a half a pint of beer chased down with a measure of whisky.

You can see some images of inside The Oxford Bar here. It’s a typical old Scottish pub.

Roy Lichtenstein, Edinburgh

Posted on 11 October 2015 by Katrina

A couple of weeks ago we went to a Roy Lichtenstein exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. It’s part of the Reflections series and the exhibition is free. The Water of Leith runs right behind the gallery so we walked along there to Stockbridge which is one of the best areas in Edinburgh for bookshops. If you look closely at the water in the photo below showing part of the Water of Leith at that part of Edinburgh known as Dean Village you’ll see that a lot of the stones have been piled on top of each other and somehow stuck together. I believe that this was done by some random bod in the belief that it enhanced the area in some kind of arty way. I prefer rocks and stones to be piled up by nature and left that way, but each to their own I suppose.

There were some lovely reflections in the water. I always find it hard to believe that the city is so close to such a great walk which feels like you’re surrounded by countryside, not a city.

On the way back home we dropped into IKEA – as you do – and it struck me not for the first time that it must be one of the best settings for an IKEA in the world.

What do you think, is your local IKEA close to such scenic hills? Maybe they like to locate them close to decent scenery – or they have a penchant for blotting the landscape!

The Glasgow IKEA restaurant has a great view of what I think are The Campsies, but unfortunately I don’t have a photo of that.

Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers by Alexander McCall Smith

Posted on 6 October 2015 by Katrina

Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers by Alexander McCall Smith is of course one of the Scotland Street books, set in Edinburgh. I got a bit fed up with this series but decided to give it another go and I did enjoy this one which is mainly about wee Bertie of course. A couple of particularly ghastly characters get their comeuppance in this one, which is always satisfying to me. I do like things to be fair in fiction, if only because it rarely is in real life!

Georgian Edinburgh

Posted on 4 October 2015 by Katrina

At last we got around to visiting The National Trust’s Georgian House in Edinburgh at number 7 Charlotte Square. It’s obviously the house on the left of the photo above with the posters on the railings outside it. The house which it is attached to, the central building, is Bute House which is the official residence of Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Edinburgh is famous for its Georgian terraces and crescents. These buildings were designed by Robert Adam who was of course born in Kirkcaldy.

And hallelujah, The National Trust have just changed their policy on internal photos of their properties and you can now snap away, as long as you switch the flash off. Above is a photo of the sitting-room.

Across the landing is the drawing-room, you can see the decorative frieze/cornicing is the same in each room. The drawing room is the one which would have been used for dancing, after the rug had been rolled up. The NT have recently had a fitted carpet installed in the room, apparently they did have them in Georgian times. The window dressing is those fussy, flouncy swag blinds, which I always thought were a Victorian fashion, but you would think that the NT would get the historical details correct so I’m not sure. I do know that I’ve always hated those dust catching ruched blinds and much prefer straightforward simple curtains. I think it was the designer Sir Terence Conran who when those fancy blinds were popular again in the 1980s described them as being like tarts’ knickers. I bow to his superior knowledge!

Between the two rooms there’s a small alcove in which is situated this commode, there wasn’t much space to take a photo and unfortunately it’s blurred as you can see, but you get the idea. There’s just a bucket underneath!

Above is the main bedroom, which has beautiful and cheerful yellow wallpaper which didn’t really come out all that well in this photo. The bed is gorgeous though, in fact all of the furniture in the house is elegant, so much more stylish than Victorian furniture is.

More photos of the Georgian House tomorrow, but meanwhile you can take a virtual tour of it here.

Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland

Posted on 31 May 2015 by Katrina

Peggy, Jack and I walked down to Holyrood Palace at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, just so that Peggy could see what it looked like, if you want to see more photos of it have a look here.

Somehow when you’re on the other side of a big fancy set of gates and railings peering inside you just can’t help but feel like one of the underlings, the suppressed masses! Anyway, I admit it, I was a wee bit excited when I saw that the palace was flying the Royal Standard from its flagpole. That usually means that the Queen is in residence, I did think it a bit early in the year for her to be visiting mind you, but there was a posh black car parked just out of the photo and it had NO number plate.

Then when a whole load of kilted soldiers came out of an adjacent building and marched towards us and the gate I felt sure they must be some sort of escort but after a lot of shouting, stamping and bugling, they turned around and marched off in the direction they had come from. I think they must put on a performance like that every night at 6 o’clock, how disappointing. I thought that Peggy would be getting a glimpse of royalty but the standard was apparently flying because the Church of Scotland were having their annual General Assembly in Edinburgh that week and the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was there representing the Queen.

Anyway, it turns out that Peggy was more thrilled with the Scottish soldiers than she would have been of royalty. I think she managed to get a video of them performing but you’ll have to wait until she gets back to the US before she can blog about that.

The Martyrs’ Monument at Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh

Posted on 26 February 2015 by Katrina

A few weeks ago I was contacted through my blog about the Martyrs’ Monument in Edinburgh’s Calton Burial Ground. Martin, a student who was doing a short film about it as part of his course, asked me if I would mind saying a few things about the monument on film.

That was far too high profile for me, I like to lead a fairly anonymous life but I asked Jack if he would do it and as you can see he was happy to do so, he’s much more at home with that sort of thing than I am.

Although the monument – the massive obelisk at the left – was erected in 1844 by The Friends of Parliamentary Reform, the men that the monument commemorates were martyred in 1793 and 1794 when they were transported to Australia, for having the temerity to ask for the vote for ordinary working men. You can read about it here. Revolution was in the air I suppose and those in power here were terrified that the French Revolution would spread to Britain, so the men were sentenced to 14 years in the penal colony in New South Wales, tantamount to a death sentence. William Skirving, the one which I’m related to according to family legend, died of dysentery there.

It was nice for us to be able to help Martin with his course work.

If you want to visit the cemetery too you might find this short film from Edinburgh Video Guide helpful.

You can see more images of Edinburgh’s historic Calton Burial Ground here.

The sharper eyed amongst you may have noticed a statue in the background of the top picture that looks very like Abraham Lincoln. That’s because it is. It’s on a memorial to Scots who fought in the US Civil War.

No Wig Required

Posted on 30 July 2013 by Katrina

I can hardly believe that I’m blogging about this but –

Did you know that there is going to be a Ginger Pride Walk through the centre of Edinburgh on August 10th? You can read about it here.

Obviously it is all very tongue in cheek but there is no doubt that people, particularly schoolchildren, do get bullied just because they have ginger/red hair. I’m sure it is a hangover from the days when we were overcome by the Romans and the Celts ended up being pushed to the fringes of Britain, Celts were more likely to have red hair. So those nutty enough to poke fun at someone because of a colour are really siding with the Romans.

The march is completely open to people not lucky enough to have red hair too. Red wigs will be provided if you want to show solidarity! Have a look here.

The Ginger Pride Walk takes place August 10th starting at 11 o’clock outside Balmoral Hotel. Will I be too busy?

Edinburgh Book Haul

Posted on 31 July 2012 by Katrina

You might know that I went to Hay-on-Wye (that famous book town) recently and was quite disappointed with the place, I didn’t manage to find any books which I wanted to buy.

So it was a lovely surprise when we came out the east gate of the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, to discover second-hand bookshops which were completely unknown to me. We hadn’t been in that area of Edinburgh before, I think it is called Broughton Road.

As you can see, I bought four:
Silence Observed by Michael Innes
The New Sonia Wayward by Michael Innes
The Village by Marghanita Laski
The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories by Daphne du Maurier

I was especially chuffed to find the du Maurier book in a shop which is part bookshop and part antiques shop. I would have bought it anyway but it’s particularly nice that it’s a signed copy, as you can see. It was very reasonably priced too.

I always get my best book finds when I least expect to. I could have bought quite a few more books but I exercised restraint and of course I now wish I hadn’t. Luckily, Edinburgh isn’t very far away!

Thomas Carlyle Lived Here

Posted on 22 January 2012 by Katrina

It’s amazing what you see when you’re walking to the supermarket, if you happen to be in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh (again). I was admiring the gardens, there were quite a few viburnums blossoming, when I noticed that one of the terraced houses had a sign above the fanlight. Thomas Carlyle lived here – or words to that effect. It’s a very nice terrace but being Edinburgh the houses will cost an arm and a leg, even without a famous author as a past inhabitant. I love the fanlights above the doors, there are so many different designs. I just wish the present inhabitants would cut their climbing rose back a wee bit.

It’s great that the window shutters are still in working order too, most of the houses seem to have internal shutters. It must make it nice and cosy, especially when there’s a howling gale. They would also be handy for keeping the early sunlight out in the summer, it’s no fun trying to get to sleep when there’s bright daylight outside at about 3 or 4 in the morning.

The house next door to Carlyle’s has quite an unusual fanlight (the window above the door). It would make a good pattern for a patchwork quilt, if you’re of that band of crafters.

Carlyle lived in Kirkcaldy for a couple of years when he was teaching here but the powers that be pulled the place down years ago. You can see the street that it was in in a previous post here.

So what were we doing in Stockbridge? It wasn’t my fault (it wisnae me). Jack wanted to go to buy a book he had seen there a few weeks ago and hadn’t bought because he thought he already had it, he was wrong, luckily it was still there. He bought Space Chantey by R.A. Lafferty and The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke.

I ended up buying Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree and a 1934 copy of Priorsford by O. Douglas. Neither of them had been there a couple of weeks ago. That particular shop must have some turnover of books because they all seemed to be different this time.

Why was I at Waitrose? Buying more scone ingredients of course. Fingers crossed and ever hopeful that I can produce something good enough to photograph next time!

Edinburgh with Evee

Posted on 18 January 2012 by Katrina

As Evee said, the first thing we did when we got to Edinburgh was to pay a visit to the old cemetery across from Calton Hill in Waterloo Place. I wanted to take a photo of the names on the Martyrs’ Monument as I only took a photo of William Skirving’s name the last time I was there. You can see my previous post here.

We huffed and puffed up to Calton Hill which isn’t far and is well worth doing because on a clear day the views across to Fife and of the city of Edinburgh are great. In this one you can see one of the islands in the Firth of Forth. I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s the one which is shaped like a battleship and the Germans apparently tried to sink it on numerous bombing raids during World War II

This is the unfinished monument nicknamed Edinburgh’s Disgrace, there was actually a lot going on behind this edifice, you can just see a white van on the right hand side peeking out but there was also a digger and several men hacking away at the ground behind the base of the pillars – who knows what was going on?!

There are a lot of buildings scattered around Calton Hill and the right hand one is obviously the observatory but I can’t remember what the wee sort of mausoleum type building is commemorating.

This one is the Nelson Monument which was built to commemorate Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. You get a lovely view from the top of it and it’s worth trudging up the 100 and odd steps to get there. John, the custodian goes up them every day about 12.50 so that he has time to wind the huge copper ball up in time for it to be dropped at 1 o’clock. In the days when very few people had a watch it was useful for the folks on ships out in the Forth, not that there are many ships today, just a few oil/gas tankers usually.

THe monument used to be inhabited by its custodian but isn’t nowadays, shame because it would make a lovely wee home, I quite fancied the idea of living there but I’m keen on lighthouses too, don’t ask me why because I’m not crazy about the sea, unless there is plenty of greenery in the view too.

So that’s a wee bit more of our trip round Edinburgh. Evee did a much more in depth one which you can see here if you’re interested. Her photos are much artier than my snaps!

Pining for the West

Meanderings about recipes, books, craft and more

Tag Archives: Edinburgh