An interlude in Edinburgh

We've just got back from a long weekend in Edinburgh. We travelled by train, luckily missing Storm Doris and cancelled trains by a day. The mountains were still dusted with the previous day's snowfall.

Below you can see the roof of Waverley station with the grand monuments on the top of Calton Hill beyond. Our hotel was just around the far side of the hill.

A short bracing walk takes you to the top of the hill for a panoramic view of the city.

One of the first places we searched out (knowing it also had a nice café) was Dovecot Studios, here in a former Victorian bath house is a tapestry weaving studio. Our visit didn't coincide with being able to watch the weavers at work, but we were able to look at work in progress from the gallery.

The largest piece in progress was a massive tufted rug, the wool yarn is fired using a tufting gun, through a canvas fabric. This makes a dense pile on the other side. This rug designed by Victoria Morton is destined for a new performing arts centre at the Perse School in Cambridge.

Late on Friday afternoon there was just time to pop into the Scottish National Gallery before it closed, it deserved a longer visit as there are so many spectacular paintings. But the bell rang so we had to leave.

On Saturday morning we walked down to the Old Town for a tour of Gladstone's Land, a 17th century tenement house now owned by the National Trust for Scotland who have furnished it with original household furniture and accessories ... you have to imagine the grime, smells and noise.

Our lunch was at the excellent café at the grand Victorian Gothic Scottish National Portrait Gallery, before seeing the BP Portrait Award 2016 exhibition. I recommend a visit if you're in Edinburgh, although you can see some the paintings online they really don't show the variety of scale and media. 

As it wasn't raining, we decided to walk through the New Town to the Botanic Garden. I spotted a very smart mini-library with roof garden and then noticed we were in Scotland Street ... so maybe not surprising at all! (I don't think that No. 44 actually exits.)

Sunday morning and the sun was shining ... we set off on a bracing walk past Holyrood Palace and up the path towards Arthur's Seat, the rugged volcanic crag that stands over the city. But the weather soon deteriorated to rain and 40mph gusts (and I was wearing my leather knee boots rather than walking boots) so we took the 'easy' low level route. But it gave us a flavour of the 'mountain in the city' landscape.

The rain had definitely set in so we headed to the National Museum of Scotland which is in a fabulous building. We  joined lots of people who were appreciating a great indoor space that's free to visit. The huge galleried Victorian hall provides a wonderful area to promenade around. And the modern extension is a maze of intriguing spaces. There is also a roof garden, but we were content with viewing the rooftops of the city through the windows.

While at the Dovecot Studios we'd seen a reproduction of a painting of trees, and here it is again in the Museum, but this time it is a large tapestry that was woven at Dovecot. The design is based on a painting 'Large Tree Group' by Victoria Crowe, which features shepherd Jenny Armstrong. The colours of the yarn are all natural undyed wools from different breeds of sheep and were sourced from 70 different flocks across the UK as well as St Kilda and the Falklands. I've found an interesting programme which includes Victoria Crowe discussing her relationship to the landscape she depicts with Andrew Marr, well worth a listen. 

We were enjoying exploring the Museum and had found the Lewis chess pieces, but we didn't want to miss visiting Edinburgh Castle. So we braved the wind and rain. At times it was difficult to remain standing! Inside the castle the howling wind added to the atmosphere. 

And then the sun came out!

We found a quiet and cosy café at the top of Jenners department store, where tea and toasted tea cakes soon revived us. Then I treated myself to a pair of black suede ankle boots in the sale.

Our train home wasn't until 2pm, so we had time for a guided tour inside the new Scottish Parliament building. It was interesting to see behind the scenes and how the intriguingly shaped building contains practical work spaces ... it's well worth booking a tour.

Time to get the train, we'd paid a modest amount to upgrade our tickets to First Class so enjoyed being served lunch, tea and drinks as we sped through the countryside under dramatic storm clouds and 6 hours later we were back home.

Tomorrow is 1st March, in a couple of weeks this blog will be 10 years old! A whole decade of blogging. I've toyed with the idea of closing my blog, changing its name, or starting a different blog. But I think I'll leave things as they are and still blog whenever I feel like it. In recent weeks I've enjoyed posting on Instagram more than blogging, it's like a mini-blog post. Starting tomorrow, I'm planning a series of painterly Instagram posts through Lent, you can find me @celiahartartist, 

Celia

xx

Heading north on a road trip

Last week Cliff and I took a quickly planned holiday - a road trip joining up some places we'd always meant to see but hadn't yet got round to visiting.

Our first stop was Durham, I wanted to see the great Norman Cathedral, the resting place of St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede. Not doing our homework, we had no idea our visit coincided with Lumiere - the UK's biggest light festival! It also coincided with Abigail, the first of this year's Autumnal Atlantic Gales (which now have names to give the media an excuse for more amusing headlines). 

We braved the elements and after spending a day exploring Durham and the ancient cathedral, after dark we managed to see most of the light installations - I shared some photos and videos on Instagram. 

This is one of the installations in the cathedral cloisters - it's made from plastic drinks bottles.

Which transform into a Rose Window when illuminated.

Our next stop was Kirkcudbright on the south Galloway coast, you may have seen BBC Autumnwatch which was recently from Caerlaverock nature reserve, which was a few miles along the coast. If you did, you probably remember Martin Hughes Games watching Salmon swimming in the river at Dumfries. He stood on a bridge near a picturesque weir...

This is my selfie by that very weir ... I was lucky to keep my feet dry, as the aftermath of storm Abigail had filled the river to overflowing!

At Caerlavrock we saw the flocks of Barnacle geese through the driving rain and fog and decided not to walk around all the reserve in the mud!

But the weather wasn't bad all of the time ... we drove to the most southerly point of Scotland, The Mull of Galloway, where the strong winds blew the rain clouds and almost blew us away too! 

Autumnal colours seen after soft Scottish rain seem to have a special luminous quality.

We did some short hikes in the Galloway Forest, where we saw lots of Red Kites - you can see one perched in the tree above.

Misty views to the Solway Firth in the far distance

and over moors, mellow with russet bracken and ochre grasses.

One afternoon we walked around the beautiful secret Rigg Bay on The Machers peninsula.

After 3 lovely relaxing days (staying here, which was fab!) it was time to start heading south again .... via Morecambe

where we stopped for lunch at the Midland Hotel ... if you like 1930s design, I recommend you visit

looking up through the stairs to Eric Gill's Neptune and Triton medallion (which was painted by his son-in-law Denis Tegetmeier)

and a beautiful wall freize - it's behind the reception desk and impossible to photograph but this detail gives you a taste of the whole.

In the rotunda bar/bistro are murals based on the original (sadly lost) designs by Eric and Tirzah Ravilious. The originals were photographed in black and white at the hotel's opening ...

That night while we slept in a hotel just north of Liverpool, another storm swept in from the Atlantic, Storm Barney was still blowing when we went for an early morning stroll to the beach - the tiny figures in the distance are the Iron Men of Anthony Gormley's 'Another Place'.

Barney blew the fine sand into our pockets and ears and mouths! (I'm not sure if this little film is going to work, if it doesn't you can try here)

Time to leave Liverpool...

but not before a stroll around Sefton Park ... that statue looks familiar!

It's an exact copy of the famous Eros fountain by Alfred Gilbert at Piccadilly Circus in London. 

I've never taken a close look at the lower part of the fountain, it's often boarded up in London so revellers can't climb all over it. But if you get a chance to - in London or Liverpool - it's an Art Nouveau treat ... 

The Sefton Park version has the added value of splishy splashy water trickling around the slithery fish and chubby cheeked children.

With the cobwebs blown out of our heads we're back home again and feeling strong enough to put all ghastly news reports in perspective. The cold weather is here and Christmas fast approaching ... and I'm already working on the illustration for January's Gardens Illustrated magazine!

Celia

xx