best part of the day: festival city

21-08-22 Ignore the ned (sans helmet) doing a wheelie down Abbeyhill, we'll get back to that later. Another festival has come and (mostly) gone and I haven't really felt the need to dip my toe in any of it. I challenged Mary to find an exhibition that was on that we could go along to. (Or complain about in a blog?) But neither of us had the enthusiasm to follow through. I don't feel we missed anything special either. "Circus" type events with acrobatics seemed popular (or well advertised) this year. Or musicians who don't sound as good live as their albums. But there is the atmosphere (I am told.) If that means rubbing up against the great unwashed or standing in queues, I am happy to have seen another festival pass by unattended.

Instead we have been going out for a constitutional as often as work and weather allows - and usually around and over Arthur's Seat and Holyrood Park. It continues to entertain in a way that does not get old and (unless you want a selfie on the trig point) there are no queues.

I was surprised and pleased to find a painted lady (and red admiral) on the buddleia next to the Abbeyhill student flats. There are big piles of buddleia next to those steps opposite the Car Tuning place. Nothing all summer, so it was nice to see a painted lady there on the way past. And on the way home.

If memory serves we went over the back of the crags then down to the steps of the Gutted Haddie. I was not a fan of the steps (too easy to trip and smash your teeth) when they were installed but it makes a good test of fitness to march up them. There are occasional bottlenecks of tourists, but you are usually glad of a wait and breather.

target in white shirt just ahead

As we were beginning the climb up the steps, a dude (hard to tell if local or tourist) nipped in front of us. Since we were dressed as tourists complete with back packs and large cameras I can see his thinking was to get in front of the middle-aged slowies. He started up ahead of us and put quite some effort into getting a couple of zigs ahead of our zag. However, those steps can be an endurance event more than a sprint and soon we had him in our sights. He used the excuse of a person coming down to have a breather just ahead of us, about 2/3rds of the way up. We could tell he was struggling by now. And us gaining on him all the time. We have fifteen to twenty years of hill running in our legs, and although we haven't done any for a while there was no way we don't rise to a challenge like this. Around 7/8ths of the way up there is a viewpoint and he stepped off the climb to pretend to admire the scenery.

We knew he knew that we knew he was throwing in the towel; surrendering while face saving. After we had stormed past and continued to the top at that pace, he sheepishly returned to the climb and came up to the top in our wake. He looked pallid faced and like someone who had bitten off more than they intended. Job done!

grayling

the 90's are on the phone and MC Hammer wants his parachute pants back

That's a bit unfair as I like those trousers. I also like MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This, (1990) especially the pants, especially the dancing. Hammer pants have their own wikipedia entry. And rightly so! Born Stanley Kirk Burrell, MC Hammer made many millions but after spending it in the same hurry, plus a couple of lawsuits and some racehorses later, he filed for bankruptcy in 1996 with a debt of $13m. So he could dance, but not think. Or not both at the same time. He was 60 in March. Frankly with that record I'm surprised he is still alive. Not surprised he became a minister for a bit - a different lane of show business, but still up on stage telling lies.😁 Can't touch that!

This cycle-tour-festival-show was very busy for a while.
Nearly every time we went past they would go past.

difficult to convey just how beautiful the long grasses were

common darter

berries on the Duddingston steps

the e-bike tour parked up at Duddingston Kirk

Duddingston Kirk

When I saw Thomson's Tower was open for an exhibition of paintings, I was more interested in having a nose round the building rather than the paintings. In fact the paintings were really very attractive (far too inexpensive; the largest and the one on the poster, the best, only £80 framed) and we got speaking to the artist and I almost forgot to admire the inside of the building designed by Playfair and built in 1825 for the local curlers to store their stones. Right enough you wouldn't want to drag them home every time.

We also got shanghaied (that IS a word) into this talk about medicinal plants and flax by these 2 in the photo below. It was neither boring nor fascinating but somewhere between and there wasn't enough of an audience without rounding up folk just out enjoying the garden. About 10mins after they started we sloped off. The sun had gone in while they spoke and we had missed any chance of butterflies. The garden is always worth a wander. I think the back seats were occupied again and we were forced to retreat.

no idea what this label on gorse near Samson's Ribs is about

sunken glass pavement tiles to diffuse lights at The Queen's Gallery

When we returned to the buddleias at Abbeyhill, the RA and Painted Lady were still there. The sun came out and they danced for us. Mary's enthusiasm faded before mine and she was up the road ahead when a small gang of neds on motorbikes buzzed by, the leader of the pack doing a wobbly wheelie down Abbeyhill. I turned on my camera and took a couple pics from the hip not wanting to raise the camera and maybe risk catching their attention.