Bartimaeus

December had been pretty mild and during a walk through the graveyard as a quiet alternative to the busy road on the other side of the wall, Shane and I came across a mini daffodil blooming by a grave. It was a miniature and perhaps they bloom earlier. 

I did a little garden clearing and found some shoots of Spring flowers in late December, but this was fully out in mid December. It was a clear Hogmanay and then the temperature has been dropping. We had bit of sunshine but also spent time emptying the bird bath of ice and adding warm water. They have loved it. I had given Nye a bird calendar and visiting my sister I saw she had the same one. As it was cold we weren't as tempted with a walk as we usually are but enjoyed the blossoming viburnam and a pair of bullfinches in the garden. From a first floor window we got a good view. When the sun was actually in the spot where the tree was we ventured out to the garden, for a breath of very fresh air.

From my own window I was surprised to see a blackcap. I had never seen one in my garden before. It is the very bird on the January page of the calendar, so thought he'd not met it before, Nye knew what it was too, our bird of the month, not brightly coloured but brightening our day nonetheless.

The news is full of deaths, bombs, civil wars and international attacks and the long term suffering that entails. There were some tragic losses of life also during celebration period, such as two people drowning on a Boxing Day swim in stormy waters and the nightclub in Switzerland where many young people died in a fire. It is awful to hear and tragic for their families. It helped me to remember to appreciate what  I have now and good there is in the world. Most people are good hearted and supportive of others. The response to disasters demonstrates this. Shane has been enjoying looking at the footage of ongoing repairs of the canal breach near Whitchurch. Hard work, a sense of community and kindness is a prevailing theme. It just doesn't hit the headlines.

Bryn has returned to work. Shane and I began taking down the decorations. He was dealing with the lights and asked me to fetch a box. I was amused to see him load them into the box, still lit.

My niece had proposed a walk along the canal, so I  left him to it and set off to catch the bus. We chose to start out of town by the Water of Leith and walk towards Tollcross. That way we didn't have the wind in our faces, not that it was very windy, but what wind there was would be very chilly. Even the flowing Water of Leith was beginning to freeze.

When we reached the canal, it was completely frozen over. Bits of wood were trapped in the ice and there were some animal prints over the surface. 

Further along we did see a boat moored but I am sure no one was aboard. There are some frozen canals in England too. Edinburgh has had it easy compared to some other places, that are under a foot of snow. I have had a cancellation of a visit because my visitors were snowed in. We had good bright weather for our walk. There are no canoeists to see at the boat house today.

How tiny birds and other creatures manage in this weather amazes me. On the way back home, I saw another natural survivor. A snowdrop was forcing it's way up early in the season, finding its way through a crack in a path. It can't have been planted there.

In the first few days of January I had concluded that my fancy fairylights sock pattern would have to be frogged, (ripped back and reused) because it was obvious that I hadn't enough wool for a second sock when I was well through the first. Another New Year Resolution could be to always weigh the wool first before beginning a project with leftovers. I also felt that I had chosen colours that looked good together but were not suited to a delicate contrast pattern. They were too similar and it was hard to see the design in the multi-coloured wool. However I did have a different colour set of wool specifically designed for making socks with contrast colours, a gift from a friend so I have chosen a different pattern, gingerbread socks (slightly seasonal but less tied to Christmas), which looks like it is more complicated than I first thought. Hoping it will be enough wool though. New project, new needles, new wool and new knitting resolution.... 

Shane suggested an outing to the Portrait Gallery to see a photography exhibition. It was by a WW1 pilot and photographer. He survived 9 crashes but did lose his larynx in the ninth one, losing him the ability to speak. He continued to fly and do photography and write articles about his experiences. Although it was the portrait gallery the prints hadn't portraits of people but did give us a portrait of his fascinating career and methods. He began in the south of England. Some were set in Edinburgh and most had another plane in the photograph. The ability to manipulate an image didn't start with Photoshop and digital photography. He overlaid different negatives of the sky, the land and planes, to produce a final picture with all of them looking their best. The resulting pictures are stunning.

He went on to photograph volcano craters and the Andes, suffering altitude sickness as he did so. Fortunately he was the photographer but not the pilot in that incidence. He didn't seem afraid of anything and was prepared to do photography without gloves, in subfreezing temperatures and standing up in the plane or hang out the window to get the best shots.

It was amusing to see most of them were aerial landscapes or skyscapes and some were printed in landscape and some in portrait. He certainly seemed to take a positive perspective on life and was able to present new perspectives from around the world to the rest of the world.