This morning when I took Honey the Dog out for her morning walk at 7.45am this morning, the first thing that struck me was the super blue sky! Think that is the first morning on lock-down that it’s been so blue. It reminded me of the summer when it is super hot.
Was absolutely lovely to walk in such a lovely blue sky. This evening, there was a beautiful sunset. Harder to capture that where I live. But what I noticed during our evening walk at 9.30pm, was the stillness in the air. There was the unfamiliar rumble of traffic in the distance, but still an amazing presence and stillness in the air.
As for the constant rumble of traffic in the background, that still really annoys me. It’s been 10 days it’s been like that. The total silence, no traffic, stillness in the air, that I loved so much at the start of lock-down has now gone. In fact today, the roads seemed as busy as ever – just like normal. I counted 17 cars sitting at the traffic lights junction at the top of Easter Road/London Road junction. In the early days of lock-down you’d be lucky to see 2 cars there. We are still in lock-down – nothing has been announced that has changed. But the roads are super busy. I really hate that now!
I really hope that people could remember how the streets were when we were in lock-down and try to maintain some of that? The free of air and noise pollution was so magical being in a city. But, alas – we are returning to how life was before lock-down. The hustle and bustle of life. The streets getting busier and busier again. People are not walking so slowly anymore. It’s such a shame.
We are losing the magic of lock-down 🙁
For those who know Glasgow and Edinburgh, will be familiar with The List magazine. This is a magazine that is published for Edinburgh and Glasgow, with listings of events, etc…back ‘in the day’, before we had the internet so readily available. You would find it in everyone’s house. It was the go to guide on what was happening in Edinburgh and Glasgow – what was on in the cinema, theatre, gigs, etc…Obviously, that has all been destroyed so much by the internet.
It had a great feature called “I Saw You”…I think they have now stopped this now. It was to create some romance in life…for example, “I Saw You on the No. 26 bus in the west end of Edinburgh. We smiled at each other and said hello. I was in the white blouse and blue skirt. You had spiky hair. I wish I had asked you for your number. How about it?”. There was up to 30 of these across one page. If your recognise it was you, you could write to a PO Box and your letter would get sent onto the person who wrote it.
Whenever you picked up The List, you would scan the “I Saw You” section, to see if there was anything for you.
About 20 years ago, I won a free 12 months subscription to The List, I think it came out once a fortnight. With my 12 month subscription, for fun, I decided to post an “I Saw You” for every addition. Out of all of them, I got when reply!
I had met a girl at a party. She had said she always read the “I Saw You” hoping that one day it would be about her. So I wrote “I Saw You Anna, wondering if this is for you – It Is !! …..”. We went to the Christmas Market for mulled wine.
Today, I was queuing to get into Sainsburys for my weekly food shop and this came to mind. The reason, was because I saw stuck to the wall a couple of plastic folders saying “Take One”. It was a one sheet double-sided ‘news’ sheet – about things going on in Leith and living in lock-down. On the front, it had a crude version of “I Saw You”, called “Who Fancies Who”.
This was the first edition and started with:
“We’re the Usher, so please take a seat (until you get moved on by the police). The cinemas and theatres have all shut down so we’re redirecting our soothing crowd control skills towards this community newsletter – or was we like to call it, a commYOUSEletter!”
They are inviting people to write for it.
I can’t imagine this ‘community newsletter’ will be as good as this blog 😉
There is something magical hearing a piper on top of a hillside – whether it is at Hogmanay, at a special event or at a festival in the summer. The sound fills the air in a magical sense – and for me, always reminds me how I love being in Scotland.
Today on Arthur’s Seat there was a piper playing. At first I wasn’t sure if he was just finding a good place to practice. But then I heard another piper way over across in the distance on the crags. They were playing together. The beautiful sounds filling up the hillside on such a glorious day.
I filmed it and put up on YouTube. Check out below:
Readers Corner
There has been sharing from our two most regular Readers Corner sharers – Brian and Fi. I think they are in competition with each other to include the most interesting sharing 😉
Brian
First up Brian, shared this post from the Edinburgh Evening News, about how a Police Officer has swapped the streets of Edinburgh for the Outer Hebrides. Constable Sara Hamilton has taken a six-month secondment from Edinburgh detective in the economic crime unit to patrol the islands of Barra and Vatersay.
Here’s the full article – https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com
He also shared another story from the Hebrides, from Cal Mac (the ferry company that operates across the Hebrides) with your own Calmac & Cheese recipe to make at home whilst on lock-down.
Here it is – https://www.calmac.co.uk
I look forward to seeing a photo of Brian’s homemade Calmac & Cheese!
For many years, Brian and I have an annual trip round the Western Isles in July. Which always includes many trips on Cal Mac ferries.
Brian writes:
“The recipe and the story of the police officer swapping Edinburgh for Barra and Vatersay were making me melancholic and nostalgic about the Outer Hebrides!”
Thanks for this Brian – me too!
Fi
I had commented to Fi that it was a super stunning day here and what was the weather like in the Isle of Canna. She replied,
“Glorious! I was determined to do some admin today but too nice to sit inside, so…”
Then later shared a photo with:
“Also, dinner 
“
These two photos are in a Photo Gallery – if you click on them, you will see them in full size.
This evening she shared this funny post:
https://www.facebook.com/thesandk/videos/3794146687324278/
Thanks for this Fi ! Great to see how life is in Canna!
As I come to the end of today’s blog, I reflect on how lock-down is coming to an end, even though nothing has ‘officially’ changed.
There are quite a few people talking about lock-down ending and how they hope they soon will be able to be less isolated, seeing friends and family and spending time with each other in their homes. The governments have been saying we shouldn’t expect things to suddenly change and we will not be “back to normal” with a total end of lock-down.
It will be an interesting time to see how people respond to this and whether they stick to what the “rules” will be. It certainly feels like people are now returning to their previous way of living – out and about in their cars, non-essential shops opening, people sunbathing across Arthur’s Seat and socially distanced gatherings happening.
I am loving my new life in lock-down – and not really wanting things to change. I wrote about this back in the late teens of this blog. I still feel the same way. I am really enjoying the solitude and connecting to myself in a deeper way.
I finally decided to look up what the rainbows everywhere means. I kind of guessed it was about creating hope. Check out this article (CLICK HERE). As I don’t watch TV, don’t read newspapers, don’t watch the news and hardly ever look at Facebook – I miss so much. But I am enjoying being that way.
My final reflection – is the fear that people will return to their cars and forget about the amazing quality of the air and stillness we had during lock-down. I really do hope people will try to use their cars less and adopt some new ways of being in relation to their travel. We have seen how pollution can be virtually stopped in such a short time. But I fear this will not be the case.
Thanks for reading.
Stay Safe.
Jim xx
Colin
Lovely blog today Jim. Thanks.