These miniature statues are currently a feature of Edinburgh’s West End for the duration of the Edinburgh International Festival. The real Kelpies are one of the largest standing equine sculptures in the world, standing 30 metres high, and located within “the Helix” park, Falkirk, a 350 hectare park situated between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. The Kelpies are the creation of sculpter Andy Scott. Next time I’m up in Scotland I will most definitely be visiting the “real” Kelpies in Falkirk.
Taking photographs of them at different angles, certainly seemed to breathe life into these miniature Kelpies! Also I played about with the exposure, brightness, etc, on a photo editing site: http://www.picmonkey.com/ to get differing effects.
I’m on a bit of a holiday so just a little note to let my followers know that I won’t be posting as much for a while, though I might be tempted to join in the writing #BlogBattle and I will be replying to comments so do feel free to chat. The good news is my mum is doing wonderfully well after her operation, she’s some lady, in her seventies and as feisty as ever! We’re getting our orders, tee hee, she’s a laugh. I think she even had the nurses at her beck and call, sounds like they treated her like royalty!
My journey started off terribly badly I did a crazy thing I turned up at the wrong station! In my defence I’ve never done this before, this was a first. I went to Waterbeach (our nearest station) instead of Cambridge. A few days prior to travel I had picked up my tickets from the ticket machine at Waterbeach, and somehow had it in my head that I was travelling from Waterbeach. So my husband had to try to beat the train! A racing challenge, just up his street! He drove me to the next station on the route, it was a hair-raising drive. I really thought there was no way he could do it but amazingly he did and with a few minutes to spare! Luckily the train was running two minutes late and we’d left the house in good time. Phew!!!!
The train journey was lively to say the least we had the cast of one of the shows on our carriage and they were a boisterous lot, you could tell they were actors, they liked to be noticed. I’ve never heard a bunch of people laugh so much. At one point we arrived at a place called Northallerton in North Yorkshire and they queried whether this fairy tale sounding town existed, I reckon they thought it was some sort of Narnialand.
On arrival I decided to walk through Princess Street gardens to get a feeling for Festival Fever, boy it was busy, luckily I just have one small piece of luggage with me. I arrived at my bus stop, and guess what, wonder of wonders my mother in law was standing there apparently waiting for a bus! What are the odds of that? Amazing. Anyway we had a brief chat and then she had to dash off to find her bus, she was at the wrong stop, apparently all the buses are a bit confusing at the moment with the Festival being on.
So I’m up in Edinburgh, sans enfants and sans husband, I intend on catching up with old friends, maybe visiting the cat café in Stockbridge, going to the Book Festival, and the dance and drama events at the International Festival, and the Art galleries if I get a chance. I shall be going out with my dad for Chinese lunch, visiting my mother-in-law, catching up with my brother and generally eating too much. Yum….
I’ll be helping out with mum, cooking, and generally doing my Florence Nightingale bit. You can see why blogging has to take a back seat. Hope my mum will be able to join us out and about towards the end of next week. Unfortunately it is dreadfully busy in Edinburgh at the moment, with all the excitement of the Festivals, the town is packed so it is not very easy to manoeuvre around if you’ve just had an operation. So we will have a duty to try to keep her in, to ensure she rests, no easy task for a lady who is always so full of energy. Let the battle commence…..
I’ve packed a couple of books to catch up on, a bit of holiday reading. My current read is The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, which is a rich descriptive read inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, I’m really enjoying this. As well as this I intend to read The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan. “A dramatic tale of love, loss and betrayal in Provincial China, told with directness and deep feeling.” Mail on Sunday.
If I finish these two there are a wealth of detective novels in my mum and dad’s house so I don’t think I will be short of reading material, and of course I’m sure I’ll pick up some new novels at the Book Festival. How exciting!!! I love Edinburgh, me home from home, only slight gripe it’s so cold here, I don’t think I’ll be needing that sun hat and shades, a woolly hat would be more useful.
Anyway Happy Holidays, hope if you are going anywhere nice you have a wonderful time.
This is a continuation of an idea that I began on May 6th, which featured Deacon House Café, a great place to stop for a coffee before buying your tickets for shows.
Every August I head up to Edinburgh for The Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe. I just love all the craziness that seems to accompany the city at this time of year. So I thought I’d share with you some of my photos from last year’s festival to put you in the mood for attending this year, or if you live too far away, here’s a little taster for you to enjoy!
Fancy a bit of robot fun?
Look, you can even get your photo taken with him.
Or maybe you’d rather be plastered in a pile of leaflets? That’s one way to get much needed attention! Hope this hard working young man’s work contract includes a tea break, and the odd toilet stop, poor chap. Charlie Chaplin’s smiling down on everyone, he’s ok, he’s got top billing.
If all else fails, wear black, collapse onto the road and stay there, just hope and pray that nobody trips on you as they go pass! Luckily this is a pedestrianized area, no cars, lorries, or buses, thank heavens. The lengths that these performers will go to in order to get their show noticed.
Have you been to The Edinburgh International Festival? Have you performed there? Do let me know I’d love to hear your stories.
I always enjoy travelling up to Edinburgh in the bonnie month of August for the Edinburgh International Festival. There is so much going on, there are so many shows to see, dance acts to watch, comedians to listen to, as well as an abundance of street performers. The city is heaving with excitement and drama. I love it.
So with that in mind I thought I would do a sequence of posts to get you in the mood for the forthcoming Festival, here is my first of these featuring my photographs of Deacons House Café, which is a short walk from The Festival Fringe Box office.
The guy below isn’t one of the merry troupe of actors taking part, he is guarding Brodie’s Close. This is most definitely a spot to stop by. Deacon Brodie was a respected cabinetmaker by day, but he was also a thief by night, and he and his friend and co-crook Smith were hanged at the Tolbooth Prison in the High Street on 1 October 1788, before a crowd of 40,000.
I stumbled upon this quaint coffee house, Deacon House café, 3 Brodie’s Close, 304 Lawnmarket, Royal Mile, Edinburgh on my way to pick up tickets for some Festival shows. It is in the very hub of Festival land within short walking distance of Edinburgh Castle, Waverley Station and George IV Bridge.
The photo below is a bit blurry, so here’s what the plaque says: The ground floor of the café was once Deacon Brodie’s workshop. The vaulted ceiling in the kitchen dates back to 1420, and is one of the oldest ceilings in Edinburgh. This part of the building was the brew house for the Abbey which occupied this site. The Thistle Room upstairs was part of Deacon Brodie’s dwelling. The ornate ceiling dates from 1645. The room is still the meeting place of the Celtic Masonic Lodge. The extraordinary tale of Deacon Brodie, upright citizen by day, and burglar by night inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write his macabre novel The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The story is depicted in our mural inside.
As you can see they serve a wide variety of yummy food, this is a real gem of a find, well worth a visit, so don’t forget to stop by on your way to buy your tickets for shows!
Opposite the café, if you fancy anything a bit stronger, you can pop into Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, where they sell real ales. The Deacon Brodie Tavern is featured in Nicolson pubs of distinction, see the links below.
I’ll be doing some more on the Festival soon. I hope this little feature on Deacons House café got you in the mood for exploring what Edinburgh has to offer this year, it certainly made me hungry for more…..
