Walking home from work a couple of evenings ago I was crossing North Bridge, which is one of the great vantage points for views of Edinburgh as it strides its way across the valley below (where the Waverley train station lies) that seperates the Old Town and New Town and offers up views westwards looking along both Castle Ridge and Princes Street towards the Castle, the National Gallery, Scott Monument and more, while the eastward view towards Calton Hill and out down the mighty Firth of Forth and out to the sea (on a clear day you can even make out the distinctive shape of North Berwick Law further down the coast). Walking home this particular night it was a clear sky and bitterly cold. I looked eastwards and rising directly above Calton Hill, as if it came out of the Forth, an enormous full moon. An orange-red full moon.

As I was on the way from work I didn’t have my tripod, so I improvised a night shot balancing the camera on a ledge on the bridge and setting the timer. Sadly I simply could not get the moon to come out more clearly, although everything else isn’t too bad, all things considered. Even if it had come out it wouldn’t have done justice to the view I was drinking in, before the cold drove me to get the gloves back on and get going. Rush hour on the bridge so it was packed, but most people hurried past, heads down, without noticing this astonishing visual gift nature and our ancient city were offering up to those who had eyes to see.