Friday 28 April 2023
I set off for Edinburgh yesterday at 08:10, back home again at 18:30. I had needed to do a food shop so could have just gone to Galashiels, but the allure of a long city walk and another Edinburgh-explore easily won. I also had an idea that I might find a jacket-coat and/or pictures and/or picture frames in charity shops in Edinburgh, having already exhausted Galashiels charity shops last week. Result. I miraculously found a jacket-coat for £10, a frame for £3 and then, because I’d parked near IKEA in Straiton, I went to IKEA (managing to sneak in through the tills at the exit, knowing I only wanted the sections at the end of the market place) and bought a load of frames (all less than £9) and a few indoor plants and pots.
The pictures I have are not a particularly conventional size and, quite frankly, under scrutiny they look a bit shite with the wrong-sized mounts etc, but I really want them up on the ‘wall of pictures’ in the small annex-type room. My friend Duncan heard a word on Something Rhymes with Purple podcast with Susie Dent, lectory. It means a place dedicated to reading. I had told him when he visited that the little annex room/’Indian room’ was becoming my favourite room to read in but I didn’t know what to call the room as annex/niche/Indian room all sounds either pretentious or inaccurate. I’d never heard of lectory before and I’ve just Googled it and, even better, I found this in a Waterstones blog: “a ‘reading place’: somewhere where you and your books can be left alone in peace.”
The only problem with my, ahem, lectory is that I pulled something around my rib cage at my back almost two weeks ago and it seemed to have been brought on by my lying on the charpai/only seating in my lectory. It has a huge saggy bit in the middle and the cushion-roll is very big so I figured that the unusual stretch triggered it to ‘go’, though it is apparent that it was something exacerbated by all manner of things, from an uncomfortable bed for the two nights in Edinburgh after Easter and stretching more than usual (not in a beneficial exercise way). Anyway, I have put two fairly flat cushions in the saggy area and I’ll be back to reading “alone in peace” once I’ve got over the ongoing (now very minor) ache/tug.
I’ve banged on about this before but I really do love walking in cities. Yesterday’s walk was amazing. Due to the first bus that came, one that terminated in Granton Harbour, I decided to stay on it until the end, so started my day in Granton. Wow. I thought London was rough/dodgy. When I first lived in Rotherhithe, southeast London, it must have been about 2002. The walk from Rotherhithe to Tower Bridge along the Thames then, so before all the new flats were built and the last of the metal warehouses were knocked down (ie the nice old brick ones were just made into flats), was reminiscent of Granton Harbour area. I decided to head to Granton Beach. My way was blocked the first two roads I walked up. I decided that if the third road was also closed off, I’d abandon trying to see the beach. Third time lucky.
The roads were blocked off by either construction work to build blocks of flats or by security fences announcing the land had been bought and would soon be developed. The road I did walk on was a mix of parked cars, parked vans, people sitting in cars, wafts of cannabis, quite a few vans, trucks and cars going along the road (not many but more than I’d expect for an otherwise seemingly-desolate area), small industrial buildings, light industrial work going on and cordoned-off wasteland and a lot of litter. The kind of place I could imagine would feature on Crime Watch, for example. I did get to the beach. There was litter all around. I suspect within ten or so years the surrounding area will be full of flats and maybe there will be more life to the place. I’m not at all a fan of places being taken over by construction and posh, expensive shops and cafes being brought in. But neither am I fan of places being left unloved. If the rubbish were cleared up, the security fences removed and the land looked after … I don’t know, but it’s not a subject for this blog.
The other side of Granton Harbour was kind of pretty. Some really interesting houses and streets, Wardie Beach, though just a small area of sand in a bay, with Granton Harbour on one side and Leith on the other, was enjoyable, but it isn’t a destination beach. It’s just a nice place to visit and really lovely if you live around there – the only people I saw on the beach were dog walkers.
I walked to Stockbridge (my charity shopping destination, Raeburn Place) via the botanic gardens. The botanic gardens are amazing (they also have an exceptionally good/interesting shop with some great gardening tools, seeds and gifts (quality things like you’d expect in a museum gift shop, not plastic cutesy “Made in China” hedgehogs and the like), lovely loos and what looks to be a popular café. As for Stockbridge, loved it. Some great shops, loads of food places, book shops, very good charity shops, and pretty much only independent shops. I will definitely be returning. I bought a string of china chilli peppers from a fab shop that sold a lot of Mexican stuff, including handmade cookware from the same area of Mexico where I bought a small casserole dish, and dried/tinned/bottled/packaged ingredients.
I caught a bus to Newington, to then be able to catch a bus back to my car in Straiton, and had a late lunch at a Nepalese café, masala chai (way too much milk for me to do anything but grimace with every mouthful) and three very, very tasty fried chicken momo.
I had a hugely enjoyable day out, despite on/off rain, and I was also very happy to be back in the quiet of the middle of nowhere. These longer days make proper day trips so much easier.