The start of a new year

Can’t believe the first two weeks of the new year have gone by already!  I really didn’t do much in the first few days – just lazed about, watching TV -something I don’t do much of normally – reading books, sleeping….  Nice!  However now I think I am suffering from the winter blues!  The weather has been the worst thing.  It really gets me down.

We started the new year with a green Green, but that didn’t last!  We’ve had a few more snowfalls, maybe two inches that didn’t last too long, but on Saturday, just as we thought it was all just about gone, we had another 4 inches overnight – and it’s still here, thawing a little by day and freezing at night!  It’s pretty treacherous walking, despite the grit that has been spread by the local council.  Oh well, we’re on the right side of the year now.  I tell myself that Spring is coming!!!   ( and as I prepare to post this I can tell you that the temperature has now gone up considerably and the snow and ice is disappearing!  Hooray!)

Colin came up from Yorkshire for a visit at the weekend.  I had lots of jobs for him to do!  The main one was to take my old broken down washing machine to the recycling centre and to collect a new one from a store in Edinburgh, bring it home and fit it into the empty space left by the old one!  Where I live it’s not quite that straightforward as there are ten steps down from the front door to the garden;  a walk along a path, then up about 20 steps - by the snow-capped wall in the photo -  to the houses above, with a bit more path through the close to the street itself.  However, no problem to the lad!  Sack barrow at the ready he loaded the machine, bumped it down the first steps, up the next ones, and loaded it into his van.  First we headed for the recycling centre, then off to the store in Edinburgh for the new machine.   We also got curtain track and some timber, and he fixed up a pelmet over the curtain track in the living room.  Now I have to get on and make some curtains!  I have the fabric – but not the “get-up-and-go”!

Morag and I went up to Edinburgh one day last week where we met up with my sister Jean – can you tell we’re sisters? -  for lunch at Bobby’s Bar.  The Bobby in question was a small dog.  Most people have heard the story of Greyfriars Bobby, the little Skye Terrier who sat on his master’s grave  for 14 years only leaving it to go and find food once a day.  The story was made into a film many years ago by Walt Disney. 

 

 

 

After Bobby’s own death a small statue on top of a fountain was erected in his memory – to commemorate his loyalty.  He had made quite an impression in the old city around the kirkyard of Greyfriars, where his old master had been buried.  The bar where we ate lunch could well be on the site of the eating house where Bobby was befriended by its owner John Traill.  

Later Mo and I went for a walk around part of the kirk-yard; saw the graves of Bobby and Jock Gray, and looked at a few other parts of the cemetery.  Of interest to Morag was the plaque commemorating the 19th century deaf artist, Walter Geikie, who was also a  founding member of the first church specifically for the deaf.  Reflected in the marble is the church of Greyfriars.  There is a lot more to see in the kirkyard, but it was too cold for a full exploration, so we left to catch a bus into Princes Street to meet Mo’s son for a cup of tea.  Surprisingly the big wheel put up for the Christmas season was still in operation beside the monument to Sir Walter Scott.  I keep say I’m going on it one of these days!  Maybe next year!

Talk again soon.