Skip to main content
I am sitting here with my favorite cereal (Pecan and Maple Crunch, courtesy of Sainsbury's) thinking about the events of yesterday. After church, which I was actually on time for, I met some friends at my flat and we headed to Craigmillar Castle. This great ediface of history and tourism is apparently just down the street from where I live - a fact I was not aware of until a few days ago. Yes, yes, I know. I've been here nearly eight months and didn't know there was a castle down the road. In my defense, we had to wander through a lot of woodland (or a 'wood stand' as my agriculture-environment majoring flatmate calls it in her well-informed way) and some field before we finally saw it, cresting a hill, overlooking some cows. Here are a few photos, some of which were taken by me and some by friend Sarah:



on our way to the castle - lots of green


a fuzzy view of some edinburgh from the hill ascending to...


the castle! ignore the cars, and you can almost sense what Mary Queen of Scots felt when she stayed here (one cannot mention her enough when visiting historic Scottish landmarks)


castle in close-up. here's a turret. and yes, I stood on it.


trees, just inside the doorway. brilliant interior design.


and last, but not least, I stand on the battlements overlooking some cows while thinking of my brother - Sarah snaps a photo and we converse about the difference between hay and straw.

Comments

  1. Wonder Jens23 April, 2007 20:29

    need i say jealous?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown24 April, 2007 04:32

    I think we should live in a castle, okay? or an old abbey? That might be cool.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonder Jens24 April, 2007 20:31

    YESSSS!!!!!!!!!

    !

    needed another exclamation mark

    I can hardly wait/ :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lil_Flip28 April, 2007 21:26

    Ooooh, castles. Did you feel royal? I feel royal, just looking at the pictures.
    Love the last one of you peeking into the corner. So cute! As are you. Just darling!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
6 comments
Read more

birthday wishlist

Enough people have asked me what I want for my birthday, that I have decided to post a wishlist on this blog. I know that twenty-six is long past the age of getting significant presents, but I also know that there are some people who will buy me things anyway. So I might as well. DVDs and music seem to be the fallback for me. It's difficult to get me something I don't like in this arena - but a list might be helpful. I guess. So I need to replace my copy of The Village, allegedly stolen by druggies. This is a must. I keep forgetting, and then regretting that I don't have it. I don't have any film adaptations of Dickens novels - and no, I don't want Nicholas Nickleby. I like Our Mutual Friend and David Copperfield best. I would love some classic Hitchcock films. I'm not interested in any of the ones with Carey Grant. But I like all of the others. Except maybe the Birds. And I simply love How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. I don'...
5 comments
Read more

Book of the Week: The Hunger Games

If Cynthia Voigt had written science fiction, it probably would have looked something like The Hunger Games . In Suzanne Collins's newest novel, we meet a protagonist who seems remarkably familiar. Like Voigt's heroines, we understand her story because she seems so much like ourselves - no matter how strenuous or bizarre the circumstances, we feel certain our story would be the same. We, too, would have those resources, that practicality, that certain sensitivity that separates us from the masses. I don't say this critically - it is the book's strongest feature that it identifies with every one of its readers and says 'this could be your story.' It is not just its portrayal of Katniss Everdeen, the novel's heroine, that is familiar. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic North American nation, Panem. It is a country held together by fear - a fear instilled by the capitol into each of its twelve districts and maintained by a yearly event called the Hunge...
5 comments
Read more