Unicorns, Trouts and Love

And now for something completely different: A few things I noticed recently in Edinburgh’s New Town, which is of course a very old town, just slightly – ever so slightly – ‘newer’ than Edinburgh’s Old Town. In the grand scheme of Edinburgh, I could be classed as the ‘New Britta’. Actually, I think I’d be

Relief

Sometimes we recognize ourselves in a character in a book or we see similarities in a famous oil painting in a museum. Other times, we feel a deep, almost uncanny connection when staring at the West-Bow Well at the bottom of Victoria Street in Edinburgh. The latter happened to me. Here’s the stone relief and

Books and Booking

I have a bit of a book and booking dilemma. It’s Book Week Scotland. This means, that within seven short days practically every possible book related activity will take places. Workshops, launches, author events, readings, book swap parties, seminars, the lot, all free of charge, in order to promote the simple joy of reading and

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop

I don’t win things. Well, at least not when it comes to things like lotteries or big prizes. A few days ago, however, I won a wee something: tickets to the midnight launch of this year’s Book Week Scotland in a luxury hotel in Edinburgh. Great atmoshpere, hot chocolate and mulled wine, just a handful

Queen

Sunday, and it’s raining. More rain after old rain. We’re about to find out what comes after saturation. Unfortunately, our soil remembers the answer. This time round, we are among the luckier ones, sitting on the fringes of this endlesss rain, with the worst falling elsewhere. So this, perhaps, the best time to share another

The Poetree

Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, welcomes around four million visitors each year. Most of them tick off the big tourist attractions like the castle, the Royal Mile, St Giles’ Cathedral, throw in a couple of museums, the Royal Yacht Brittania in Leith – there’s lots to do and see, from specialist graveyard tours to Harry Potter themed

The Golden Hours

So, here’s a bit of last year’s news. Another tiny victory – and if you’ve been following my blog for a while or even since forever, you know that writing successes, no matter how small, don’t happen very often and when they do, I celebrate. Look at my smug, happy face: You’ll also know, that

Edinburgh in August

Edinburgh in August, a very much so acquired taste and not for the fainthearted. The Scottish capital has an interesting approach to festivals. They pack them all into one month of the year. One whole month of everything under the sun happening at exactly the same time: music, film, literature, art, add the Military Tattoo

Summer solstice and a skating minister

So, it’s the summer solstice and true to form, we’ve got an abundance of rain. Thanks to the long daylight hours here in the north, we can see more of our rain. Yay! What’s not to like? I’ll be able to observe each drop, each drizzle, each downpour until eleven o’clock at night. At the

Noseying

I went to the National Library of Scotland – again. What can I say, it’s an absolute treasure trove, filled, not only with priceless books and manuscripts, but also with the nicest and most helpful staff imaginable. And a good cafe. Plus, they offer a wide range of free events. So I attended a creative