| The Starflyer |
[16 Dec 2025|06:29pm] |
The Starflyer, which is an annual feature of Edinburgh's Winter Festival, seen from Waverley Station as I awaited my train to Dunfermline in the sunny afternoon of 16th December, 2025. Apparently, it's 80m tall (about 250ft). Fuck going on that, that's all I can say!
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| A dusting of snow |
[09 Jan 2026|10:28am] |
The view from my kitchen window during a shower of snow at twenty-past-nine in the morning of 9th January, 2026.
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| Edinburgh on a winter evening |
[01 Feb 2026|11:25pm] |
As I made my way up St. Mary's Street and along Jeffrey Street in the late afternoon of 1st February, 2026, I saw this most unusual cloud formation on the northern horizon. Later, when I spoke to my mother on the phone, she said the night sky was lit up in bright orange to the east of her house in Dunfermline. As I'd suspected, it turned out to be due to the flaring of excess gas as a result of a malfunction of some sort at the Fife Ethylene Plant at Moss Morran, near Cowdenbeath. Apparently this contravenes some environmental protection law and the owners of the plant were fined several hundred thousand pounds last time it happened. I doubt if a massively profitable multi-national oil corporation (ExxonMobil) will be too concerned about that though.
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| Narcissi in St. Andrew Square |
[08 Apr 2026|08:34pm] |
Although it's been three or four weeks since they began to bloom, there are still plenty of daffodils and narcissi to be seen. These were by the tram stop in St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, in the late afternoon of 8th April, 2026.
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| Princes Street Gardens |
[04 May 2026|08:44pm] |
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A view from Princes Street Gardens towards buildings on The Mound and in the Old Town in the late afternoon of 4th May, 2026.
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| A northward view from the St. James Centre |
[25 Apr 2026|09:56pm] |
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A view towards Leith Walk and the Firth of Forth from a north-facing external window in the St. James Centre, Edinburgh, on 25th April, 2026.
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| From Roseburn to Slateford |
[01 May 2026|09:50pm] |
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Murrayfield Stadium, the home ground of Scottish Rugby Union, seen from the Water of Leith Walkway near the start of my walk from Roseburn on 31st May, 2026. It looks huge from that angle.
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| March and Rally for Independence |
[21 Sep 2013|09:40pm] |
I took part in the March and Rally for Independence which was held in Edinburgh on 21st September, 2013, to mark one year before the independence referendum, which was held on 18th September, 2014. It was a dismal and grey but pleasantly mild day, and there was a very happy and positive atmosphere amongst the marchers. According to the BBC, 8,000 participated in the event, but I'd have put the numbers at several times that. I think they simply plucked that figure out of thin air. Of course, the media always plays down anything that threatens the status quo and their positions of entrenched privilege and power. Anyway, I took a few photos.
The March for Independence assembling in the High Street, Edinburgh, on 21st September, 2013.
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Here is how the BBC's 'Reporting Scotland' reported the event. On this occasion, they went beyond their usual highly slanted and selective style of reporting and actually broadcast an entirely staged 'Better Together' event in order to divert attention from the independence rally. The BBC justifies manufacturing news in this way on the basis of balanced reporting; however, this is a prime example of why the BBC is held in contempt by a large section of Scotland's population.
See Identity Parade on the very excellent Wings Over Scotland web-site for a fuller report on this issue.
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| On Calton Hill at sunset |
[11 Oct 2025|11:16pm] |
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A northward view over the Firth of Forth from Calton Hill, Edinburgh, in the late afternoon of 11th October, 2025, with Benarty, West Lomond and Falkland Hill, Fife, on the horizon.
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| Views from Regent Road |
[17 May 1999|06:39pm] |
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A southward view from the highest point of Regent Road towards the Canongate and Salisbury Crags, circa May 1999. The first flat I occupied when I moved to Edinburgh in 1993, at Dunbar's Close in the Canongate, can be seen above the group of trees towards the left of the photo. Canongate Kirk and Burial Ground are towards the right. At the bottom-left, one of Edinburgh's best-known music venues, Calton Studios (later Studio 24), can be seen.
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| Actual sunshine?! What?!! |
[20 Mar 2025|10:56pm] |
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Edinburgh had its third day of sunshine and clear blue skies in a week on 20th March, 2025. This was the Scott Monument in East Princes Street Gardens in the early afternoon. I had to wait about ten minutes while tourists took selfies in front of the monument before I could take this photo. I'm not usually so patient!
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| Robertson's Close |
[18 Feb 2025|08:05pm] |
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A view down Robertson's Close, Edinburgh, from Infirmary Street to the Cowgate in the evening of 18th February, 2025.
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| The absurd workings of capitalism |
[19 Dec 2021|03:43pm] |
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A view of the entrance to the recently-opened St. James Quarter shopping centre which occupies the site of the former St. James Centre in Edinburgh, on 19th December, 2021.
I don't think the new building has much to commend it (it consists of the same asymmetric jumble of square boxes as is the current fashion everywhere, and it could be in any city anywhere in the world), but it's probably slightly less of an eyesore than the utterly grotesque concrete lump which it has replaced. I visited it for the first time today, and found that, as expected, it contains all the usual generic high street chainstores, but I was surprised to find that almost all of the shop units have been occupied. The shops are on three levels: basement, ground and first floor. I was on a mission to procure zinc tablets but I didn't know where Superdrug was and couldn't find a plan of the shopping centre. However, when I passed by Boots in the basement, I guessed correctly that Superdrug wouldn't be far away. In fact, it was the next-but-one shop along. This is precisely in accordance with the absurd workings of capitalism, whereby attempting to deny market-share to competitors is considered to be more important than locating shops where they will be of the greatest benefit to customers.
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