Tag Archives: Meadows

Sakura Time!

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It’s that time of year when the cherry blossom trees are blooming with silken petals, all over the city. My favourite spot to enjoy them is in the Meadows, the huge, popular park in the middle of the city, which boasts two avenues lined with cherry trees, creating a “tree tunnel” you can walk through.

Cherry Blossom Time 01

Cherry Blossom Time 02

While I was stuck for those eight, long, dragging days in hospital, dreaming of being able to go outside again, I found myself thinking that the sakura would bloom within a few weeks, and I wanted to be out of hospital and also to be recovered enough to walk through it. I do this every year, but this year, with the cancer surgery and ongoing treatment (chemo now awaits… sigh) it felt more precious than ever. I was dreaming of walking under those branches, heavy with blossoms, with my friend on my arm.

Cherry Blossom Time 03

Cherry Blossom Time 04

So, each day since I got out and moved back to the family home, dad and I would go for small walks to help me build myself back up slowly, then after a week I moved back to Edinburgh to my own flat, continuing my walks each day. On one such walk I saw the blossoms were almost full, so arranged to come back a few days later with my friend, and we promenaded arm in arm under those delicate blossoms. The Meadows was full of happy people enjoying the burst of fine, spring weather and the arrival of the blossoms, just a lovely atmosphere, and, as I said, this time with everything I have been enduring, it just felt so much more precious to do this annual ritual.

Cherry Blossom Time 05

Cherry Blossom Time 06

Cherry Blossom Time 07

Cherry Blossom Time 08

Cherry Blossom Time 011

And I shot a couple of “walk through” videos to go with the photos:

Vid - Cherry Blossom Time 01

Vid - Cherry Blossom Time 02

Sakura Time

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The annual miracle of spring returns, and with a burst of beautiful, bright, golden, spring sunlight, my chum and I decided to enjoy a Sunday promenade below the lines of cherry trees, now in full blossom. While there are plenty of such blossoms around the city, in the Meadows there are two avenues of them, creating a “tree tunnel” that you can stroll under, and as you can see, it’s a popular thing for many of us to do as spring finally exerts its dominance over the departing winter.

Promenading Below The Sakura 01

Promenading Below The Sakura 02

This glorious little miracle happens every year, and every year I feel compelled to take some photos and share them again. After the dark, long, winter, it’s good for the soul to take in the light and the return of colours, those fabulous pinks against a clear, blue heaven above, just gorgeous.

Promenading Below The Sakura 03

Promenading Below The Sakura 05

Of course, I took a monochrome shot too, despite the colours it was also just begging for a B&W snap too.

Promenading Below The Sakura 04

Promenading Below The Sakura 06

Promenading Below The Sakura 07

Promenading Below The Sakura 08

Of course, I wasn’t the only one taking photos of it all!

Promenading Below The Sakura 09

Promenading Below The Sakura 010

As ever, click the pics to see the full size versions on my Flickr stream.

Scottish Summer Time

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Even by Scottish standards we have had an exceptionally long run of wet weather this spring and so far this summer. A few hot, sunny days interspersed with heavy rain and skies as grey as battleships, then often days where we get both, one after the other, changing all throughout the day, so you are carrying both sunglasses and a brolly.

Spring Deluge 01

Spring Deluge 02

I was walking through the Meadows recently, warm and dry, picked up some lunch from the van near the University Library and sat on a bench to enjoy it. Ten minutes after I finished and was walking away, it started to rain, then quickly turned up to torrential downpour. I sheltered under a friendly tree for a few moments – it passed pretty quickly and was back to dry soon enough – and decided while I waited I may as well grab some photos of the deluge.

Spring Deluge 03

Spring Deluge 04

Vid - Spring Deluge

Of course, it’s not all dreich weather, we’ve had days of sun and warmth too – I took this recent sunset across the city from the upper deck of a bus as it crossed North Bridge:

View From A Bus - Sunset Silhouettes

And a glorious summer evening at Holy Corner

Sunset And Shadows

Water Wheel

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After so many days and weeks of mostly rain, interspersed with the odd day or two of nice weather (even by Scottish standards it has been remarkably wet for a long time), unsurprisingly the grassy parts of the Meadows are a bit waterlogged. While the paved paths were fine, the grass paths many like to stroll between lines of trees were filled with large puddles and mud, which did offer some nice reflections of the trees, though!

Water Wheel 01

When I looked more closely at that scene, I noticed that some rotten bumbag had thrown away an old bicycle wheel, right there in the park. I mean why would you do that? To abandon this thing here, you would have to walk halfway through the park, passing bins closers to the entrances, but no, carry it right through the park then dump it right where people normally stroll. However, despicable as the lazy littering of a public park is, it did offer up a decent monochrome photo subject for my lens…

Water Wheel 02

Water Wheel 03

Lazing on a spring evening

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Walking home from work a few days ago, after some awful (even for Scotland) weather, including a return to winter, spring arrived properly, with warmth and golden sunlight. I decided to take a longer but more pleasant route home, past the university and through the Meadows, the large, popular park nearby, and naturally it was full of people enjoying the sudden burst of nice weather. As I was snapping some quick people watching shots I spotted this chap, hammock tied up between two trees near the path, laid back and relaxed, and had to sneak a quick candid shot. Man, this guy has that lifestyle priorities thing worked out…

the right idea

Bright eyed and bushy tailed

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Made a new friend while walking down Middle Meadow Walk. Extremely busy at rush hour with folks walking home from work and legions of students from the nearby university, and here is this handsome wee chap darting around among the trees just a few feet from hundreds of people, most walking past without even noticing he was there. I love that little things like this can happen even just walking home from work in a bustling city:

bushy tailed chap 02

I’m forever blowing bubbles….

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I'm forever blowing bubbles 03

Walking through the Meadows a couple of weeks ago during a sudden burst of warm, bright autumn weather, came across this chap making giant soap bubbles – I love finding little surprises like this as I wander round Edinburgh, it’s one of the reasons I always have my camera stashed in my bag, you never know what you might see just walking home from work… If you look at the lower pics, over on the far right you can just make out a bubble exploding into soapy shards, it must have popped just a millisecond after I hit the shutter (click on the pics to see the larger viewing options on my Flickr) I'm forever blowing bubbles 01