Holyrood Park

Summer is on it’s way

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Summer is definitely on the way, last night the bats were out to play! I went down to St Margaret’s Loch a couple of weeks ago, the day had been warm so I reckoned there’d be plenty flying things for the bats to feed up on – I saw a measly two! Bah. Yesterday evening I took myself off for a walk around Queen’s Drive, going anticlockwise from St Leonard’s Crag to catch the end of the sunset over the city. Also because I know that the bats around Dunsapie Loch (the top pond) emerge earlier than those down at St Margaret’s Loch (the bottom pond). Yep, they were out flitting about, what a joy to just stand and watch them! Oh, and there was a fine layer of evening mist drifting over the water, it was almost ethereal.

St Margaret’s Loch in Holyrood Park

There were the usual few bats darting around, between the trees on either side of the road, as I headed down the drive, but I was to be disappointed by a lack of bats at the end of St Margaret’s Loch, had some calamity befallen them? I’ve seen so many around there in the past, but not a one! Oh well, on to the next spot (there are five particular spots around the pond that the bats favour), yay, plenty! And the next two as well. By now it was getting pretty dark but my night vision is good (until a car drives past, leaving me briefly blinded); I really can just stand for ages with bats swooping around me, and the longer you stay still the closer and closer they’ll flit past, I never want to break the spell and leave, but this time after a rather spectacular acrobatic pair disappeared into the gloom, I knew I should make that the finale and plodded home. It was just after half eleven when I put the kettle on for a bedtime brew!

The light was seriously fading but still I stood

And it’s yet another hot, sunny day today (I predict a wet Fringe!), its also Eurovision today! Yay! I will admit I wasn’t bothering to be interested this year as I really wasn’t impressed by the UK’s entry; it’s been played plenty on the radio but nah, right-hand side of the scoreboard for that. Then Thursday evening I watched the second Semi-final; the UK as one of the “big five” are straight into the final but they do sing in the Semi’s. Wow, Geez Louise, watching Remember Monday perform What The Hell Just Happened? well, blimey Charlie, I am converted! Those girls know a thing or two about how to sell a song, they nailed it! I will be very disappointed if it doesn’t finish on the left-hand side of the board (I’m not so delusional to think it could win, ‘twould be nice, but it won’t). I have listened to the contenders on the Eurovision playlist on Spotify but nothing has screamed absolute winner for me. I’ve also been checking out Accordion Ryan‘s takes on all the songs, always a joy, and pretty impressive that he sings in all the various languages, well it sounds impressive to me. Do check him out on Instagram, this is the third year he’s been doing it, Eurovision on accordion, it was meant to be.

I’ll have to pop out soon, buy some snacky stuff for the evening. I have some Birra Moretti in the fridge, and a small bottle of sparkling that been in there for ages, perfect for Song No.9 (to toast Sir Terry). This morning I picked up some of Levantine’s excellent Baba Ganoush at the Edinburgh Farmers Market and after great deliberation, a slice of the black cherry from Hometown Cheesecakes (it was between that and the mango’n’passionfruit, tough choice). I rustle up something with the hogget liver that i bought from Annanwater, something paprikary, yum.

Oh, and on the Farmers Market – there’s a new stall, and it sells the most amazing ice cream!! But, not only do Thistle & Churn make their own ice cream, the cones are all made by in house too, and they’re incredible! When investigating buying cones, the lovely man discovered the shelf life was fifteen months, like, what’s in them to last so long? So he rolled up his sleeves and came up with his own recipe; the ice cream recipes are divine, and by’eck if the cones aren’t the perfect accompaniment! Oh, I had a lovely chat with him, that’s how I know he’s a lovely, interesting chap. I like to find out a bit about new stallholders, and they’re usually very pleased when someone takes an interest. God, I’m so lucky, artisan chocolates and now ice creams!

Thistle & Churn’s Caledonian Cream

Anyhoo, must go. Toodle pip!

Bad influences, good music

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I’m blaming bad influences for losing my bank card last Monday. Was I feeling rebellious after an evening of high spirits and rockabilly rock’n’roll? Could be, the band were after all The Best Bad Influence back in Stramash, always a blast. I was stood near the stage, enjoying the tunes when they struck the first notes of Johnny B Good, I think I may have yayyed out loud because a lady close by looked at me, I looked at her, and that was us, two crazy dancin’ fools until the band finished; both of us thanked the other profusely for dancing, but no, no, thank you, I never usually get to dance. There was even hugging going on, the happy joyous type, she was there with her other half but he’s not the dancing type, and he was clearly delighted to watch her dancing without having to oblige her himself. Such a shame that they were only here on holiday, I wouldn’t mind bumping into them again, so great to let loose on the floor.

Anyhoo, so Monday afternoon I was in Holyrood Park, I went up Moose Ridge, then across to the rocky top of Crow Hill. Now, officially the path down from the Nether Hill to Powderhouse Corner is still closed, officially, but recently I’ve noticed plenty of folk using it in the evenings, so as it was after five, I decided to check it out. Turns out that after the initial stepped area at the top (still with large bags of rocks to be used), the rest is pretty much done. The horrible, scary, slidy bit is now a delight, they’ve done a brilliant job on it, sweet! Annoyingly, that didn’t stop my mother’s voice sounding in my head that closed means not to use it (I had way too much parental guidance as a child), I reasoned back that all was fine, then not half an hour later the cashpoint at Tesco’s accepted my card then shut down, bugger. I know it’s daft, but it felt like retribution for being naughty! Sorry, mother. Apparently, a swallowed bank card is treated as lost, so I’ve had to cancel it and order a new one, thank heavens I have another account as well. I’m now wary what might happen to me if I use that path again before it reopens!

A heron engrossed in finding some lunch in St Margaret’s Loch, Holyrood Park

Tuesday night was a Scat Rats midnight set at Whistlebinkies, so I checked out what was on at the cinema ’til late. Oo, a film that Edgar Wright recommended on Instagram, Sinners, blues music and vampires (anyone else immediately reminded of From Dusk Til Dawn?!). A voice-over at the start of Sinners tells of musicians “with the gift of making music so true, it can conjure spirits from the past, but it also can pierce the veil between life and death,” and alas, it can attract evil that wants such power for itself. The setting is 1930s Clarksdale, Mississippi, Sammie Moore is a blues guitarist with this particular gift, Remmick is an Irish vampire who wants it for himself, Smoke and Stack are Sammie’s twin cousins who are setting up a juke joint, inadvertently providing the setting for the big showdown.

Like From Dusk Til Dawn, Sinners is a film in two halves, the first, a story of the twins returning to their home town, reconnecting with folk as they prepare a big opening night for their venture, there’s just a few hints to what lies ahead; then, there’s the expected (well, I was totally expecting something spectacular after that voice-over) awesome scene where Sammie’s music moves the assembled in euphoric, mystical ways, causing the vampire (now with two more, freshly turned) to come a-knocking, aaand that’s the second half underway, nuff said. Oh, and the coda after the first credits very neatly ties everything up in a blue bow (I knew to watch out for it thanks to Mr Wright’s Instagram).

God, there’s a lot to enjoy in this film, the performances, the music, the cinematography; I like how it starts on one morning, then goes back to twenty-four hours previous and shows how Sammie got into the state he’s in. I also like the premise that some musicians, some music can be so sublime, transcendental – you know where I’m going with this, if you’ve read much of my blog. Maybe I should start carrying a bottle of garlic water and a pointy stick when I go see certain musicians?!

It’s late. Time for bed. Sweet dreams!

The end of summertime

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The summer is fast running out now, evenings are darker, the wind is cooler but the sun still been dishing out the odd warm day. We’ve had a few days touching 20° since I last posted, and today was rather nicer than forecast, lucky for me as I was in the Park this afternoon doing a bit more brambling. I’d noticed some rather juicy-looking brambles a couple of days ago (no container unfortunately!), so I headed back today once they would have had one more good blast of sunshine (to raise the sugar content).

Brambles can be very deceptive little sods; they might look shiny black, ready, but nope, still clinging on tightly refusing to budge. Others look ready but are actually overripe, too much juiciness that almost explodes on touch. A ripe, well-formed bramble will come away with a gentle tug; often found in a more dapply light than too much harsh direct sunlight. Believe me, I’ve learnt plenty about the art of brambling these last few years!

I had time to sit a while just taking in the scenery, looking across the big dip to the old quarries and the sweet, slightly treed area to the left (definitely not enough to say wooded just a few dotted about), a photo just can’t do justice to it, at least not with my mobile. Oh, the colours, hues, the movements in the breeze; it struck me just how good my long sight is and how grateful I am to be able to enjoy all the detail.

But I thought I’d take a pic, anyway

Last week we had three beautiful warm days, that slid into the most gorgeous evenings and sunsets. Quite a number of folk headed up to the high areas in Holyrood Park to take in the last of the sun and dusk. Of course, there were plenty of new students in the mix, I wonder if they realise those evenings were nothing like the norm?

Arthur’s Seat – a top spot for a good sunset

Heading home well after 8 o’clock on the Tuesday, I made a slight detour to pass Whistlebinkies as they hadn’t put anything on social media about the midnight band – oh, a wise move, those Scat Rats were on, yay. I’d figured there should be a good chance it would be them, and how, they were buzzing! And tomorrow evening (ah, it’s after midnight, so, later on today…) the Scat Rats are back at Stramash. Oh yeah, that reminds me, last Thursday night I was expecting to see Babyface and the Beltin’ Boys at Stramash.

The sun is sunk, now comes the next colour palate

Erm, there was no Babyface (a bearded face instead), just the one regular Beltin’ Boy on lead guitar, a different double bass player, and a familiar face on drums – Gavin from Logan’s Close! I was thrown when I first walked in, as the tune was not one that would ever feature in the usual BFaTBB playlist; it felt a tad odd but by ‘eck, that chap could sing, Summertime and House of the Rising Sun were particularly fine. And what a joy to see Gavin, yay.

The top of Salisbury Crags always has a few folk at sunset

Oh cripes, it’s very late. I must away to get some beauty sleep. I may well edit this a bit in the morning when I’m more awake but it’ll do for now.

Sweet dreams!

Goodbye ’23, Hello ’24

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When I woke up on the 1st it was raining, oh I was so tempted to go back to sleep but no, and sure enough by the time I was ready to head out the rain had stopped. The proof of the pudding is in the picture….

Yes, that is a traffic cone on top of the trig point!

Yay, my New Year tradition completed again, no thanks to the high winds – I was lucky not to get blown over to Fife! My concerted effort to be up there relatively early (about 10am) paid off, the hordes had not yet ascended, probably still their beds. After the annual pic, I found a slightly sheltered spot in the rocks for my brunch (chicken sandwich and christmas cake washed down with whisky), just taking time to admire the view and exchange new year greetings with passers-by.

I mentioned in my last post that The Scat Rats were playing Whistlebinkies at 3 in the morning on the 2nd (or technically the 3rd), I didn’t make it. The soul was willing but my flesh and bones decided otherwise, a shame. And I bet you’re wondering how the LC gig went on the 29th – totally and utterly bloody awesome!! Mind, I wouldn’t have expected it to be anything less.

It’s been many years since I was last in The Liquid Room, nothings changed; nice that the stage has enough height to allow plenty of the audience a decent view of the band. There is a balcony round the sides and back, tempting (I’ve never been up there) but I’d got myself a good spot close to the front, so was fine.

The lights dimmed to four scattered spotlights, SeanKeys started playing the opening bars of Dans Le Jardin over and over as the rest of the band came on stage and readied themselves (to rapturous applause, natch); Carl next joined in with a lush guitar sound, followed by Scotty’s velvet vocals (and a natty new top he got for Christmas). And they were off!

The set for the evening was Heart-Shaped Jacuzzi in reverse order, so next up was the magnificent Mock Marble Linoleum, yes! Back for the evening was original bassist Ollie Turbitt (he’s definitely acquired some italiano cool), slotting in fine, obviously enjoying himself, sharing plenty of laughs with SeanKeys.

In the absence of Stu, Gavin picked up some of the harmony vocals (there will be four part harmonies in the future, I hear). Great that he was actually visible, and he is a drummer worth watching.

After the chirpy cheeriness of Merry-Go-Round the rest of the band left the stage to Scott and Carl for Calculations + Guesses. It struck me that by the end Scott’s body language seemed to be trying to belie the emotion of the song, distancing himself from it, perhaps? Next, our two troubadours took us way back to an early tune they wrote, very Beatlesque!

The rest of the band returned with two Logan’s Close classics, Lost In You swirling straight through into Give It To Me, what a night!

From there we plunged back into the new album and Curious Terrain, the other grand baroque opus (the studio version is powerful, live it loses none of the nuance and gains from a full-on performance from the band). From there on to the big guns, Babestation then Heart-Shaped Jacuzzi, gotta say this way round really works well live.

It was around this point I get fuzzy, I think it was after the title track that we were treated to a new song (called So Cold, possibly?), I remember a bottle of Buckfast appearing, Scotty saying something like “I’m changing it”, the band going into I Want You which seemed to throw Ollie and Sean a tad. Well, that all happened, though not necessarily in that order!

I do remember the evening ending with Hot Blondes In Your Area Tonight and the whole place going hyper. Oh lordy, what a grand evening! And what a way for LC to end the year! Can’t wait to see what happens next in 2024 ❤️

Oh, if you’re new to this blog, do yourself a favour and check out Logan’s Close on Spotify or wherever you listen to music, hear what I’m making such a fuss over (and see why on my Instagram reels).

Wishing you all an excellent 2024! Toodle pip!

A walk through the Vale

bruceonthefringe 2023, Cragg Vale Coiners, Holyrood Park, North of England, Walks, Yorkshire Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Just back from another jaunt down to deepest dampest Yorkshire, boy, was it damp! Even with temperatures into the low twenties on several days, the feeling of damp prevailed. But hey, I finally got to do the Crag Vale Coiner’s Walk, on a bright sunny day too. It was really great, even when I took an accidental detour, well, it was a tricksy bit to figure out from the description and map (somewhere around Lower Lumb, but at least I was always headed in the right direction, not lost just a tad misplaced).

Hoo Hole – ancestral home of owls??
Into Spring Wood

The walk is a circular route beginning and ending in Mytholmroyd. It’s 5¼ miles long and is quite strenuous in places, a tad muddy too – and that was after unseasonably reasonable weather, oh, and there’s farm mud to negotiate through! I employed a fleet foot approach, tread lightly, move quickly, speed yourself over the top!

The woodlands around Cragg Vale are awe-inspiring, oh, some of the trees were magnificent, I could have dawdled for hours admiring them. The moorlands above have panoramic views all around, including across to Bell House, the home “King” David Hartley; that’s it on the right hand side of the picture below.

The boardwalk pathways through the bogs on the moor attest to how dangerous the area would have been back in the Coiners time.

The Lumb Stone on Bell House Moor

It took rather longer than I expected (even without my departure from the mapped route), so I didn’t have time to stop for a drink at the Robin Hood Inn, a shame as it is a fine, old fashioned pub with well-kept ales.

I fully intend to walk it again in reverse, hopefully next summer, allowing much more time! The map (by Christopher Goddard, a local cartographer) with all it’s illustrations, instructions, information and quotes from The Gallows Pole is a delight unobtainable from reading bits off a mobile phone. Yay for paper maps I say!

After yesterday’s long journey back up to Edinburgh, I took myself up Moose Ridge this morning. Interesting goings-on up in the Park…

Those bags are impressively strong!

Good night all!

Once in a blue moon

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Hands up who went out to see the blue supermoon last night? Needless to say, there were plenty moonwatchers in Holyrood Park for it, though early views were looking doubtful with the eastern horizon being swathed in cloud. Of course, the rest of the sky just had nice pretty bits of cloud around.

I headed up on to the Nether Hill while there was still plenty of light, but the evenings are no longer nicely balmy, I decided to head down on to the top road. The views over East Lothian are perfectly fine there, it was getting quite dark enough as I made my way down the hillside, I surprised a few rabbits along the way (haha, autocorrect wanted to change that to rabbis!).

It always surprises me how quickly the moon moves when one just watches it. I couldn’t figure out if the star above it to the right was pulling the moon behind it, or, was it running away and the moon was in pursuit?! I strolled slowly round the road and on to Echo Rock (possibly not a wise move in the dark but by that time I was embolden by the music I had playing in my ears), all the while playing peekaboo with the moon.

I even dared to walk along the ridge leading to St Leonard’s Bank just to prolong my moonlit jaunt; what with the moonlight and music, it was a moment! No, I wouldn’t say I was dancing in the moonlight, just grooving with the beats provided by the likes of Dr Feelgood (staccato stepping with Roxette), Manfred Mann, The Troggs (a spot of dog walking) and, of course, plenty of Logan’s Close in the mix there. Okay, so there may have been the occasional moment when my exuberant hip swaying sauntering may have been mistaken for dancing. Man, it felt good!

Ah, it’s just after midnight, goodbye August, gonna miss you. Time for good mooses to head to bed, more musings tomorrow. G’night, all!

Some Tuck, Rats and Hot Blondes!

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This time last week I was in Stramash watching The Scat Rats, another damn fine performance as we’ve come to expect from them. The early evening band was Nicole Smit and Jed Potts doing their thang (the first time I’ve seen their double act outside of Binkies) ranging from country, blues, rock’n’roll, and this week Jed went lounge (honestly, eyes shut he sounded like he should be wearing velvet and ruffles!) on a couple of numbers.

Last night I had been expecting to see The Blueswater but alas they had to cancel, well, some of them, so instead Nicole and the Back-up Crew (there are a few overlaps there) did the late night shift at The Jazz Bar. No, I didn’t go, I went to bed at a reasonable time instead! I do hope things are okay again for their Fringe shows (the first one is Wednesday 9th).

I had been wondering at a seeming lack of Tuck this year, nothing in the programme! Surely he’d be up? What anarchy would ACMS descend into without him? And This Is Your Trial without a single Tuck appearance? Surely not. Oh, and TIYT is with Laughing Horse this year, in The Counting House at half past five in the afternoon. It is very random depending many factors but hey, it’s free, definitely worth a punt!

And then, midweek he shared a pic on Instagram of his Fringe schedule so far, yay! Thom Tuck will be in the building, well, a building, a number of buildings, around Edinburgh during August. I like his use of colours, if a tad rough, but curious what Dom and Wogan mean!? 2110 Ginzel’s I think I’ve figured out, some serious acting? I’ll let you know.

This morning I headed up Moose Ridge in Holyrood Park, after a week of slow ambles with old dogs I’ll have to get back into the long climb up, ready for Arthur’s Seat Comedy Extravaganza on Saturday 19th. If you’ve never been up to the top, then that’s the day to do it! Catch a 45 minute free Fringe show with four stand-ups and the most spectacular view in town (unless there’s very low cloud!)

Hot news of the week, Logan’s Close have released another succulently scintillating single from their forthcoming album Heart-shaped Jacuzzi, for which they have also announced a Release Party date in late December, oh yay! So that’s Hot Blondes In Your Area Tonight available now on Spotify and other music streams; and Liquid Room on 29th December.

Alas, I was away on Monday when they invited fans to go along and be in the video for Hot Blondes, hopefully it’ll be out before too long. In the meantime, I have put a clip on Instagram of The Scat Rats doing an acoustic version in Stramash.

Anyhoo, time for bed, just three sleeps to go. I’ll leave you with the Rats from last week…

Happy New Year to you

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Just a quick one to wish my readers a Happy New Year and all the best for 2023. Unfortunately I have succumbed to the lurgy that was hovering, at least I managed to dodge it until the 2nd of January, so I made it up to Arthur’s Seat, yay. No rain just extremely low clouds, but hey, I know what the view looks like.

I went up mid morning when not many were there, and my long-held belief seems to bear out – earlier birds are much more convivial, new year’s greetings with other walkers were plentiful and with smiles attached! I did well to be up so early considering I didn’t leave Whistlebinkies ’til sometime after two. The Moanin Bones were on fine form, as were Three Wise Monkeys who played up to and just past the bells (some real throwback tunes from Citrus Club nights).

Maybe sitting atop the rather damp trig point didn’t help! By midday yesterday I knew I was going down rapidly; no seeing Potts and Smit at Binkies tonight, damn. Can I pick up in time for the Scat Rats late tomorrow in Binkies?

I’ll leave you now, head off to bed. Normal service will hopefully resume very soon with my best bits from 2022. I may even get round to putting a clip or two from Hogmanay on Instagram. Oo yeah, do check out Accordion Ryan‘s clip of Auld Lang Syne!

There’s been some ukeing goin’ on

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The kitchen was a real state last evening, but that didn’t stop me from popping down to the Kilderkin for the Uke Hoot. Hey, the fridge freezer still wasn’t fully defrosted, a small pool of water was still collecting in the bottom, but not enough to spill out on to the floor if I left it for a couple of hours. Besides defrosting and cleaning it, I’d pulled my fridge freezer out from the wall to clean the floor and paint the last bit of kitchen wall. Yes, I painted behind the fridge freezer, I knew it wasn’t done and it irked me, plus there was just a small amount of paint left in the tin, it made sense.

Yes, I hooted my uke last night, it’s quite liberating! A small group of enthusiastic uke players meet up to play and sing songs, all abilities welcome, just do it with gusto and you’ll fit right in. There’s a comprehensive songbook to pick from, some of the regulars have it on tablets but there are solid copies to share around. Folk just call out tunes to play next, there was My Girl, Two Princes, Dreaming (a Blondie song I’d completely forgotten), a few Beatles tunes, of course; my suggestions were Sunny Afternoon, Runaway and Pretty Flamingo. All washed down with Stewart’s Holyrood Pale Ale (well the voice did need lubricating) at the very reasonable price of £2.30 for half a pint. It’s now £2.90 in Stramash, I guess that’s the difference between diy entertainment and getting in professionals!

I was back in Stramash last Sunday night, drinking Stewart’s Citra Blonde, a very hoppy session ale, nice but not as nice as the Holyrood Pale Ale but it is 40p cheaper for a half! The Buccaneers were playing after midnight but I went along at ten for the band before, Nicole & The Back Up Crew; never seen them before but I know Nicole has sung at a number of Fringes as part of the Blueswater Presents line-up, it seemed a good time to finally check her out.

Holy moly, ay caramba, like, wow, don’t I feel stupid for missing out til now!! What a voice, what a presence, what a cutie, Nicole Smit is the whole package; super talented and sweet’n’sassy. A quick check reveals that she’ll be performing Blueswater Presents: Queens of the Blues Live at the Jazz Bar again this year (six shows), definitely worth a punt for blues lovers. Oh, and Nicole’s at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival in July, I’ll be checking the programme for the details when it launches tomorrow.

Nicole and her trusty Back Up Crew in Stramash

I almost felt sorry for Mr Marah having to follow Nicole on stage, but hey, Carlos was fine. The band change over was easy as two of the Back Up Crew are also Buccaneers, Simon on drums and Ewan on bass (I was a tad confused when I walked in to see Simon already setting up the drum kit to his liking), as I’ve said before the band scene here can be quite incestuous. Stage right, the harmonic player was replaced by keyboards, stage left, that’s always Carl’s spot no matter who he’s sharing the stage with. I must ask sometime if there’s any particular reason for it – his best side? superstition? Special mention must be made of the night’s rendition of LA Woman (I say this as one who loved this track to death many years ago, yes, to death, when I really could not bear to hear it ever again) the Buccs have renewed my appreciation of it’s magnificence.

You would think that it was time to hit the sack when I got home at ten to three, au contraire, I made a sandwich, a flask of hot herbal tea, dug out an old picnic blanket, grabbed my uke and headed Park-ward. At five in the morning I was sat on Whinny Hill listening to the dawn chorus, a very grey dawn chorus, occasionally joining in strumming my uke (no, I was not playing Morning Has Broken). I was gently strumming away when I sensed an audience, slowly peering round there was a fox just a few feet away from me, wow! It stayed a few minutes more then continued on it’s way. Probably going to saying to it’s friends later, “You are not gonna believe what I saw in the park earlier – a moose playing a ukulele! Yeah, how weird is that?!”

a moose with a view

Some snow, some Fringe, some Potts

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We had snow, yay. Not much but enough for more snowmen sentinels to rise up again and a few snowboarders headed up into Holyrood Park for a bit of fun. Of course, I had to head out too, I mean, look at it …..

Unfortunately, we’ve still some very strong winds around, hence I ended up in a rather prickly bush. It was very prickly, and rather than come to my rescue, dash it, the photographer just laughed and kept on clicking!

Heading down to Dunsapie Loch I spotted a snow sentinal rising up, struggling against the gusts of wind (up to 40mph the weatherman said and I can well believe him) to stay upright. He kept losing his head but he still kept going! Had to ask for a pic with him but as his face wasn’t fully formed he couldn’t reply, but who wouldn’t want a pic with li’l old me?!

Back home drying out, I had a glance around news about this year’s Fringe Festival. Much as I enjoy cold, snowy weather I am looking forward to summer! This August will see the 75th anniversary of the Fringe; it’ll run from 5th to 29th August (plus two days of previews before the official start, hopefully). Hmmm, yeah, I remember the Edinburgh Fringe used to officially run from the Sunday for three weeks finishing on the Bank Holiday Monday, when did that change? Checking back through my programmes 2009, the start moved to the Friday before. You know, I never noticed that before!

Edinburgh Fringe 2022 show listings will start appearing on Thursday 3rd March with more coming online 7th April, 5th May and 9th June. Apparently there will be a printed programme this year but it won’t be launched until early July (my guess is Thursday 7th). The Pleasance Theatre have also announced their first ten shows for Edinburgh and the tickets are already on sale. I noticed the magician Ben Hart will be back again, never seen him but he always has brilliant posters. I am tempted to get a preview ticket, umm.

And back to cold February, it’s another Six Nations rugby weekend and the French are already in town! I knew the rugby was on this weekend but hadn’t yet checked who v. who and where; there were a lot of men sporting blue berets in Stramash when I wandered in to catch Jed Potts and Jon Mackenzie, some bizarre stag-do? Ah, of course, I can’t believe it took me as long as it did to figure it out! The French were out to play and enjoy themselves, well, there would be Friday to recover before Saturday. I hadn’t seen this particular combo before but Mr Potts has been very good every time I’ve seen him, so I popped along for a gander (and a couple of beers, of course). Yay, excellent again. I would have put a clip of them doing Johnny B Goode but I don’t have the premium package apparently, so you’ll have to make do with stills from it (If you pop over to Facebook, Bruce T Moose, I’ll pop the vid on that).