There will be no miracles here.

 

My friend, Don Paul (a keen painter) and I had been talking about taking a wee trip out to visit a gallery for some time. Now, with Spring in the air, it was determined that we could get to Modern 2 Gallery in Edinburgh’s Belford District and, if the weather held, would have time after visiting the exhibition to take the cameras for a dodder around the West side of Dean Cemetery – a short walk along a connecting path.

  The exhibition comprised of a small collection of works by Scottish Artist Joan Eardley, entitled ‘The Nature of Painting’. There should be some copied examples of these at the rear of this zine – all copyright the artist herself.

  Following our appreciation of the works, we headed off for a cuppa and a scone before facing the very bright – but equally chilly – East side of Dean Cemetery.

  Unfortunately, the sun was very bright and made for extremely contrasty pictures, but I found a few worth saving, and these are reproduced here.

Edinburgh Festival

June and I took the train into Edinburgh on Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day. The Festival is in full swing just now and the train was packed. And Edinburgh was the same: throngs of people walking in streams.

We first climbed up Cockburn Street to the High Street. Again, it was shoulder to shoulder stuff trying to walk along the street, and the people-traffic would occasionally come to a halt where street entertainers plied their trade in entertaining the city’s visitors.

Feeling a tad peckish – and having been disappointed at the number of eateries which were brim full of patrons – we managed to get a table in the ‘Filling Station’ restaurant. June had spag-bol and I had a burger. We both washed that down with Coke, and then I paid the £47 bill – Edinburgh is expensive.

We then made our way down to Princes Street Gardens by way of St. Giles, Street, North Bank Street and onto Market Street. The gardens were just as busy as anywhere else, but we managed to find a space on the steps of the National Gallery where we enjoyed an ice cream.

From there we went on to the St. James Quarter where June perused the clothing shops – but didn’t buy anything. Then it was back to Waverley Station where we took a slightly less busy train journey back to Uphall.