Wednesday 23 January 2013

smoke and mirrors

My little sister reached the big four-oh in early January and we braced ourselves for a chilly trip to the beautiful city of Edinburgh. Staying just off the Leith Road I had Sunshine on Leith running through my head... tis a good song, a located song and I was within its sphere of influence (do you remember that in geography?), so happy to serenade myself.

We walked for miles throughout the city and beyond in what turned out to be unseasonably mild weather. The festive illuminations at night and the new-ish phenomena of using light to alter places was a delight. I loved the trees picked out in specks of white light on the horizon, becoming drawings, negatives of themselves against the winter dark. We visited the Camera Obscura, fascinating and engaging in parts, mostly tired looking. We got our monies worth out if bendy mirrors, body outlines captured by flashes of light that gradually faded, tricks with perspective and a room that appeared to be full of stars reaching into the far distance...

We gazed up at the big wheel during our visit but never had a spin. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!