I had enough packing to do and details to take care of to keep me inside - especially after my extensive morning walk, but I just couldn't. It was daytime in Edinburgh, and I was still here. I could pack at night and could catch up on sleep eventually! So I took off again and once more journeyed down the lovely Circus Lane, which I know I have posted pictures of before (mostly looking the other direction), but it's another one of those things I can't get enough of. I hadn't had lunch, so I decided to eat one of the creations Salah had made for me earlier that day, a traditional Kurdish preparation of aubergine, served in a completely non-traditional way. I've never had aubergine before, but I needed some sustenance, and it was quite good. It got me re-fueled very well for this new venture out the door.
I walked along Circus Lane and into Stockbridge and up the Water of Leith Walkway and into Dean Village, all of which I believe I have posted pictures of more than once on this blog. It was so wonderful, though, to have those places become so familiar and well-trodden rather than just being one quick visit during a stay, which is usually the case. I got to really inhabit this space instead of just sort of dropping in.
I found a better way to get to the modern art galleries, and that made me really happy. I'd been to them in my previous two visits, but I was mostly lost as I did so and kind of got there eventually by mistake somehow. Now I know right where to find the little hidden door above. I came at Modern 2 in a way that gave me a different view:
It also made me really happy, by the way, to have opportunity to get to the "Moderns," even though they were closed by the time I got there. (I find that things like this close early in Europe.) I enjoy the grounds as well as the inside.
I posted the image below on facebook, and someone put a sad-face emoji on it, and at first glance it does seem like a sad or irreverent art installation, especially with the spires of St. Mary's Cathedral in the background, but there's actually a cool story that goes with it. I'll tell it best I can here at the moment, and I'll come back later once I've looked it up and re-verified what I think I know. Many centuries ago there was a town in France that was renowned for miracles happening there. The sheer numbers of people flocking to that town at the time were causing problems (sanitation and whatnot), and the king was fed up with what was going on, so he made a proclamation that said, in part, "There will be no miracles here." There are many ways to read this sign, but in one sense, to me at least, it's like God's going to do what He wants to do regardless of the proclamation of a king.
I love the Modern 2 building. (I love it more when there's not a little cart out front.)
Also on the grounds of Modern 2 is this sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005). There is a MUCH larger version of this in the plaza in front of the British Library in London. I just love the modern take on the art of William Blake.
Can you see why I'm happy to be on the grounds even if I can't get inside?
Between Modern 1 and Modern 2 was this advertisement for a Ray Harryhausen exhibition - sure wish I could have seen that. It is described on their site as: "Film special effects superstar Ray Harryhausen elevated stop motion animation to an art. His innovative and inspiring films, from the 1950s onwards, changed the face of modern movie making forever. This will be the largest and widest-ranging exhibition of his work ever seen, with newly restored and previously unseen material from his incredible archive."
Across the street and onward to Modern 1 -- I see again the iconic Henry Moore sculpture and the message "Everything is going to be alright." OH! And I learned on this trip that this building used to be an elementary school. My host Toby was a day student here in his childhood. (I bet the message above the entryway wasn't there when he was a kid, and I bet he and other students sure could have used it at the time!)
And then there's the water feature right out front that is so inviting.
I sat here for a while. As with New Calton Burial Ground I found the grass to be so very soft. Here I could lean back against the terraces of the water feature and really relax.
I had a beautiful view above and a positive message to the right.
But I did have to move on eventually, and I went once more to St. Mary's Cathedral. I find I've used the phrase "I love" an awful lot in this blog, but it is the case that I love these doors.
And I love the carvings in the arch above the doors.
I have posted pictures of the interior already, but I do a lot of careful masking. I don't think I had let the art displays show. I think these are part of the Fringe Festival. I know there are performances taking place here as part of that, and I think that these visual arts as well as those performing arts are part of Fringe.
I should have read up more carefully on the display below. I'd love to know more about it - what it represents, how exactly it works. I'm not even sure what to call it . . . a loom?
As I stood and looked at the loom(?) the memorial just above it caught my eye, and I am once again reminded of how much I love it (there I go again) that people's stories used to be told on their memorials. This is so sad, yet so sweet: "This tablet is placed here in the remembrance of a life spent in the faithful discharge of small daily duties . . ."
As with this morning, I did have a destination in mind, but I traveled there in a very round about way. My destination was an odd one (in anyone else's mind, I imagine), and I got kind of lost again heading there (and hadn't bothered to take my phone with me for GPS). But I'm comfortable enough with the area, that I know if I wander around a bit, I'll eventually find what I'm looking for. And, sure enough, I saw this bridge that I had only ever seen from the other side before, and I knew right where I was.
The upcoming pictures aren't the most beautiful. In fact, I'd say they're a little gritty maybe. I've often been to the intersection below, the intersection of Princes Street and Lothian Road, but I never take picture of the big, messy scene. Or, if I do, I never post it. I always get up close to these churches and the castle, and I mask them off and show them as gloriously and purely as possible, but here they are in context: St. John's, St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh Castle. (I remembered later that there's a new Johnnie Walker whiskey tasting place behind me that is so new it was opening a couple of days after I left, and I didn't even think to turn around and look! It's been under construction for years, and I didn't even look!)
But I did look in the window across the street, and I liked seeing the churches and castle in reflection. And there I am too - though nothing more remains of me there now than this ghost that once was there.
This was the first Taco Bell I'd ever seen in Europe. I love Taco Bell. No, I didn't stop. Maybe next time.
I continued to Stafford Street and down it to Queensferry St. Lane.
And I found what I was looking for No. 11 Stafford Street - former home of Mark Napier (1798-1879) who was a descendant of John Napier (1550-1617) and who wrote the definitive biography of John Napier. For some odd reason Mark's address was in the Wikipedia article on him, so I thought I'd go find his house. I also read that his grave is in St. Cuthbert's Kirkyard, but for all the times I've walked through there I haven't seen it. I guess I'd better go back! :-)
His house is still there . . . sort of . . .
So, for whatever it's worth, I have seen the former house of Mark Napier, biographer of John Napier. And then it was back towards Dean Village. This time I took the "high road" and walked across Dean Bridge. The church in the photo below features in a lot of my pictures, but always from below, usually seen as I look up from the river.
Turning back to make my way back down, I saw this sculpture on the side of a building at the end of the bridge. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Gen 3 verse 19 Anno Domini 1619."
Cool benches:
More flowers:
Rowan berries above the Water of Leith:
Dean Bridge (and the church)
Dean Bridge
Water of Leith
My favorite spot:
In my first post in the 2021 segment of this blog, which was titled Looking Forward, I posted a half-minute video clip of the Water of Leith mentioning how much I was looking forward to relaxing here once I arrived. I did this earlier in the trip, and it ended up also being the last thing I did before packing up and heading home.
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