Category Archives: Edinburgh 2014

Well, I have been planning for Christmas for ages- the first time I have been so organised. Presents bought, menu sorted, and outfits prepared. And then as our wonderful national poet said: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang … Continue reading →

I’ve been up since 3 am. Had tea and toast, finished my book, tried to get back to sleep but just have given myself more wrinkles by screwing my eyes shut tight. So, I’ve given up. This last month has … Continue reading →

Milan and Lake Como  Our mini Grand Tour of Italy was coming to an end. We had seen the art, admired the architecture, sat in churches, ate pasta and drank wine in the squares. Now we were in Milan, and … Continue reading →

Venice I missed a lot of the scenery as we sped along on the train from Florence to Venice, for I was totally engrossed in the third volume of Ken Follett’s trilogy, ‘Edge of Eternity.’ I relived all the excitement … Continue reading →

San Gimignano We were whisked away from Florence and our bus passed through the terraced hills of Chianti and the cypress-lined gardens of villages. We finally came upon the fifteen towers of a walled hill town, looking a little like … Continue reading →

I knew I would return to Florence one day as I had rubbed the wild boar’s nose in the market place back in 1995. Then I was studying 16th C Italian Art, and I had essays to write about Brunelleschi, … Continue reading →

Rome Goodbye to the umbrella and warm coats of Amsterdam, for Rome was ablaze with sunshine, and we were whisked into the heart of Trastevere by the most charismatic taxi driver, whose voice was like warm syrup as he asked … Continue reading →

My goodness it has turned cold all of a sudden. I have just made a cup of peppermint tea and gobbled up two chocolate marshmallow things, and just feel so relieved I don’t have to go out and watch a … Continue reading →

‘Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness’… Ah it takes you back to the classroom, when wasps were drunken with the fruits of the forest, and girls lay across their desks, their heads on their arms just wishing to be out, … Continue reading →

What is ART? According to a Google search it is ‘the human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature’, and ‘it is the conscious production of arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements’. It has been with … Continue reading →