Heavy snow and light shopping

More snow equals more knitting.  Fortunately we had plenty of rugby at the weekend to justify time in front of the stove watching the white wet and weighty stuff drifting down outside.  It keeps coming down, I keep sitting knitting.

I went into Edinburgh last Friday, first time this year and I have to say I won't be rushing back into the centre of town.  Mr FF took his car in for its MOT, ie diagnosis of lots of problems that will need to be addressed before we drive to Italy but at least it passed the test.  We dropped the car at the garage early and with our bus passes took ourselves off separately.  Mr FF for a hair cut, to collect some paint for the continuing home maintenance and to eat a curry. I went into Princes Street and wandered past the rather depressing run of the mill shops for a while.  It seems to me as an out of town person much easier nowadays to shop on line than travel 40+ miles to be greeted by some dismal department stores and cheap clothes shops.  I know a revamp of our high streets is on the agenda but its such a pity they have been allowed to become so tired, in these difficult times its going to be hard to attract people back unless more interesting venues appear.   Apart from John Lewis of course, always a pleasure to be in there and I bought Rowan Studio 30 knitting book, which has some gorgeous patterns for the little ones.
After walking the length of Princes Street I got the bus into Morningside which has a good range of individual shops and cafes, proper traditional hardware stores, lovely florists, even a family run cinema.    Mr FF collected the car and met me in Waitrose where I did our main provisions shop, what a treat.  He said I looked extremely happy with my trolley though he'd had a bit of trouble finding not realising I was wearing my wool and cashmere coat instead of my usual mac, one has to dress the part.  Even the daffodils in Waitrose are special

and I found this pattern in a charity shop, the child model doesn't look very happy but I think I could make quite a nice poncho for Esme.

More snow forecast this week, it is becoming a bit tedious, that's the trouble with winter it never knows when to stop.

Cake at the Castle

A day out for me yesterday. Mr FF had a meeting in Edinburgh at lunch time, so I hitched a lift and had a wander round the city which was bitterly cold but bathed in sunshine. We arranged to meet at 3 pm at the Castle Esplanade as he had to drop off some technical papers with a colleague who lives in the wonderful Ramsay Gardens a complex of flats situated above Princes Street and right beside Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Royal Mile. Visitors are allowed by arrangement with the flat owners to park their cars on the esplanade, when Mr FF arrived the guard already had his name and waved him in.

Ramsay Gardens is part of the Edinburgh old town, there have probably been houses here well over 1,000 years but the present buildings were redeveloped in the 18th century. Its a charming complex with connections to Edinburgh's great and good, like the poet Allan Ramsay who built the octagonal 'Goose pie' house and there is a spacious flat with panoramic views designed by Sir Patrick Geddes, the father of town planning.

John's flat looks directly onto the Castle, we sat in his beautiful kitchen drinking good coffee, eating Christmas cake and chatting until the light began to fade and the floodlights came on . He showed us the magnificent view from his lounge, a huge picture window completely filled by the Castle. He has lived in his flat for over 40 years and it was obvious how much he loves it. We left just as it became dark, the few winter tourists had gone and the atmosphere was magical. Its certainly an amazing place to live, convenient for all the attractions of town but a private and historic little enclave, though I imagine during the three weeks of the Edinburgh Tattoo the sound of bagpipes and the crack of fireworks could become a little trying. I'm sorry the photographs are not good, I didn't take my camera and had to use my phone, apart from this one that I downloaded from the net just to show you what we could see as we got back into the car.

I had such a good time I couldn't sleep last night. I said it was because it was the first intelligent conversation I'd had for a week and my head was buzzing, Mr FF said I just got over stimulated by the outside world and that next time he's only letting me out for a couple of hours.