Jelte and I spent the morning in a yellow painted café over coffee, croissants, and bacon. Then he left for a meeting in Aberdeen four hours away, and I went to the National Museum again, looking at machinery and animals this time.
You get a sense of relentless sincerity. Device and schemes, plans and intricacies. The Scottish spirit includes buttonholing you and explaining it all carefully so you are sure to understand. It is a country of explainers.
You get a sense of relentless sincerity. Device and schemes, plans and intricacies. The Scottish spirit includes buttonholing you and explaining it all carefully so you are sure to understand. It is a country of explainers.
Afterwards I went to a Kurdish restaurant and spent a leisurely hour over shawarma and cardamom tea, while surreptitiously sketching my neighbors. The waiters were fascinated and kept coming over to see the progress. I got a very large date (from a palm, not for the evening) out of the deal.
Replete, I climbed the castle hill, on volcanic dolerite. I wandered around in a high wind, but decided I wasn't ready to go in. Instead, I visited a tartan mill. The shop is one of those tourist destinations that is part museum, part jolly sales emporium. I made my way through china, pewter, and zillions of kilts to watch the weaving looms clatter away. I might end up painting some of these images some day... I love the concatenation of the built environment with the softer natural world. Despite the lack of raw nature in these images, there is something that speaks to me.
Replete, I climbed the castle hill, on volcanic dolerite. I wandered around in a high wind, but decided I wasn't ready to go in. Instead, I visited a tartan mill. The shop is one of those tourist destinations that is part museum, part jolly sales emporium. I made my way through china, pewter, and zillions of kilts to watch the weaving looms clatter away. I might end up painting some of these images some day... I love the concatenation of the built environment with the softer natural world. Despite the lack of raw nature in these images, there is something that speaks to me.
Next stop, Calton Hill. At the top is an unfinished memorial to the soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic wars. Glasgow offered money to help finish the memorial, but rather than accept help from their rival city, the Edinburghers preferred it to remain unfinished. Perhaps the existence of an intense story like that gives the memorial some effectiveness?
I sat and sketched the cityscape until realizing that my ears were tight and painful from the wind. Okay then. And there was the cemetery that David Hume is buried in! Wow!
After some serious walking I ended up at the Greyfriar's Art Shop to get a calligraphy pen. There, a squinchy old man, a calligrapher for the courts of justice, advised me on ink (not India) and nibs (must have a reservoir, sold separately).
I whiled away the rest of the evening at the central library, reading calligraphy books and messing with designs in my sketchbook.
I whiled away the rest of the evening at the central library, reading calligraphy books and messing with designs in my sketchbook.
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