squint bill and pals

 

16-04-26 Nothing special today but worth a blog as yet another enjoyable day out. A cycle this time to the Botanics (and Warriston). Just in case they haven't sorted their parking policies yet. We padlocked bikes outside the Botanics hoping to uncover a world of wildlife inside, and partly succeeded. Always worth a visit and something good to point the camera at.

small rhodies bursting into bloom

others bearing strange fruit

I can't even remember how much this was out by today,
less than you'd think

it's amazing the tech from china is so high tech
but low spec on the translations: hear buzz when coffee ready - you take!

photo Mary

Fairly early on we hit the cafe. It is overpriced but good quality. I think it might have been large pieces of well-iced carrot cake and coffees. It should have put me in a better mood than the amount of judgement I reseserved for this artwork next to Inverleith House. I'd seen a small sign with the artist's name and name of the piece. But last time through, missed where the actual art was. After a hunt I found it directly overhead as you pass under this arch; being the piece of stone in a stone recess above a doorway.

art

As you can see it looks like a badly repaired wall. It is the wrong size to fill that space and they forgot to take off the black packaging, wait till I speak to the stonemason. D'oh. No it is meant to look like that. It is by Scottish artist Alan Johnston (1945) and is on permanent loan from the artist. Which might mean (let's hope) they didn't spend any money on this badly done repair. It occurred to me I'd had the misfortune to meet this bloke and although it was only in a pub for about an hour, he earned a podium place on my all time list of contemptible wankers. A despicable sinkhole, full of self-importance and only interested in trying to impress those who could further his rather slight career.

weathering badly

The guy was also an enthusiastic drinker. Being in his eighties now if still alive he is probably languishing in a care home or, if he kept up the drinking, dead. When this woman came into the pub and joined us, I was told she was his wife and I inadvertently said my condolences.

The piece of so-called art is a meeting place of the houses of two philosophers...

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) and David Hume (1711-1776). The upper edge of the work incorporates a detail from the circular tomb of David Hume, located in the Calton Burial Ground in Edinburgh, whilst the lower edge refers to the raising of the ceiling (by 3cms) of the house Wittgenstein built in Vienna (1928), where Johnston made an exhibition in counterpart to the one at Inverleith House, during the previous year (1994).

orange tip in a hurry

On that theme I would like to contrast a philosopher (from one of the richest families in Europe) who doesn't do any manual labour (I don't think his 75pp book really counts as manual labour) but wants his ceiling raised by an amount that nobody including himself will notice, to the builder who will have to tear the old ceiling down and using skills learned in a proper job, rebuild and replaster the ceiling just because some drizzly-faced cunt felt he wanted more imaginary headroom and idealistic proportions. Having been both a manual labourer and now a full-time philosophist, sorry philosophiser, I know which I admire more and think is the more noble profession.

BTW if you want to read about annoying people, google Haus Wittgenstein and enjoy to what extent he made everyone's life a misery for several years to eventually construct a perfect building that nobody (including Wittgenstein) wanted to live in. 

Perhaps then very suitable to put a lump of rock that you can be damn sure Mr Johnston didn't hew from a quarry or even shape with a stone seldge and chisels, up in a hole into which it doesn't fit, above a door where nobody sees it, to describe the vacuous work of two dilettantes who also shunned any kind of heavy lifting.

The piece, when new, looked as if it was upside down. (Visually heavier side topmost.) Not sure if that was to give the feeling of unease that you might get while asking a builder to raise a finished ceiling a tiny 30mm for no good reason other than ego. Or maybe just a mistake by the labourers who installed the piece upside down. Because I'd bet money that it was not Alan Johnson who went up scaffolding carrying a slab of stone, although he might have been watching to lend the art some authenticity and gravitas. 😁

Wittgenstein might well make something of a celebrity appearance in my all time top-ten contemptible wankers.

Anyway back to reality and can you see where the orange tip came to rest? It's those magnolias again! It had done a pretty good job of choosing something to blend in with. Mary was asking where it was, and could not see it 8" from my pointy fingering. We took photos but then the sun came back out and the OT came back to life and flew off.

sun coming out

Squint Bill

We then noticed Squint Bill and his pal sitting watching us nearby. (Unusual for robins to sit in pairs.) He knows we have snacks but is reluctant to come get them, knowing we will throw them on the ground if he holds still long enough. He is not wrong. I think we made his pal (who is less cautious) come collect hand food. (see video below)

seems to manage to eat despite misaligned beak

video

At first I thought blackcap but then realised female bullfinch. I can do a reasonable bullfinch whistle and make them come over to say hello. Sometimes. Not so much on this occasion.

f

m

fantastic bush

artichoke

is hoverfly a tautology?

exactly right, give or take an hour

comma

one of them

omg!

ladybird porn

Nice to bump into Dan (previously Water Rail Dan) in Warriston. We felt the Botanics wasn't really cutting it and since on bikes it was easy to cycle up to Warriston Gardens and along to the cemetery where they even have bike racks these days. 

speckled wood by the crypts

fly by small white or similar

comma at comma corner

blackcap

black and orange cap

time for home and lunch!