There are so many grand terraces and crescents in Edinburgh – intersecting and leading one into another – that it is easy to get heady and lost in the maze. Some of the terraces are very long and stretch for what seems like hundreds of yards.
Built with a sandstone that varies from a deep reddish-brown through to pale grey (sometimes blackened by soot) – often several stories high and with a similar architectural style throughout – they endow the city with a very strong character.
The Dour Endure In Edinburgh
In fact, we have found people to be very positive, light, and friendly, on the whole. Not dour at all.
The word dour (pronounced doo-er or dower) that the Scottish use about themselves and their homeland comes from the Scottish Gaelic (and originally from the Latin) durus meaning hard, dull, obstinate.
And when the skies are grey or black and threatening, the city looks dour, hard, and unforgiving even in its grandness.
And that is how I picture Edinburgh now – friendly people set against a dark backdrop.
No Net Curtains To Mar The View
The houses in the center of the city are mainly built right onto the street, without a front garden, and there is a noticeable absence of curtains during the daylight hours at many of the downstairs windows.
Therefore one can see in to large rooms and high ceilings and the temptation to look in at every room adds a certain tension to a walk down the street.
No English house would be seen without its net curtains, so the lack of curtains here is noticeable. Perhaps being so far north and with the rooms being so big, they need all the light they can get to penetrate the gloom.
The Houses On Anne Street
In contrast, some of the smaller streets in the West End have that look that speaks from an earlier age. The elegance of the proportions of the buildings is very attractive and the absence of anywhere to park means that the streets are chock-full of ‘permit only’ cars.
Take away the cars and the scene could be from the late seventeen or early eighteen hundreds.
Rothesay Place Photographed With the iPhone
I have been taking more photographs with my iPhone. I have taken my big camera out with me and I photographed the street theatre performers at the Edinburgh Festival with it, but my ‘phone is always with me and the camera built into it is no slouch.
There are various camera apps besides Apple’s own version that is built into the iPhone, and the one that I am happy with is Camera+. If you have an iPhone, I recommend it.
The Weather In Edinburgh
The local people seem to have a different attitude to rain to that which I am used to.
Early evening yesterday as we made our way to a talk by David Sedaris, it was raining very heavily.
In the center of town, a middle aged man in a suit approached from the other direction. His dark pin-stripe jacket had absorbed so much rain that the rain was now glistening on the surface with nowhere else to go.
He walked as though he was not sodden through, but simply making his way home at the end of a day’s work.
Where was his umbrella? Why had he not called for a taxi!
I looked to my left. The people in the bus queue were standing by the railing. Some were under the roof of of the bus shelter, but they were not crowded in, jam packed to get out of the rain. No, some were standing against the railings getting wet through – with no umbrellas, no waterproof clothing, no hooded jackets.
That the weather in the United Kingdom is changeable is well known. But it has taken on a whole new meaning in the past few days here in Edinburgh.
Looking at the dark granite of the buildings in the rain, Edinburgh seems a dour place. Look at the way the people deal with the rain, and the weather seems humorous.
As I write this, the sun is shining. But it is as cold as autumn.
A few days ago the sun shone all day and we walked in the Pentland hills in the afternoon. It is very, very easy to get out of Edinburgh and into the countryside.
The sun was still shining in the evening and the air was fresh with a slight breeze. Being so far north, Edinburgh enjoys long days of daylight in the summer.
Overall though, it has rained and rained for days. We learned that a whole month’s worth of August rain fell in Edinburgh in just two days just a few days ago.