Saturday, December 18, 2010

More snow in Edinburgh, part 2.

Since we've had a thaw (ish), and it's meant to snow again tonight, I thought I'd actually get round to posting the rest of my snowy photos.

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On the way to work, this is the Grassmarket at rush hour. People started walking or using public transport (such as there was) instead of trying to dig their cars out.

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The Castle.

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Close-up. Castle Rock started looking like a black-and-white photo.


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Pocket camera has a pretty decent zoom lens for its size! This is a close-up of the Great Hall in the Castle, and the icicles hanging off the edges of the roof.

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More icicles, this time on the roof of the building in which the Royal Apartments are. This is one of the older bits of the castle.

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Icicles on the edge of a shop. It was about this point that it became necessary to have two pairs of eyes - you needed to watch your step, but you also needed to keep an eye on icicles falling from above. I nearly got clonked on the head by a huge chunk falling from South Bridge. When I say "nearly", I mean, "felt the breeze as it passed me". It landed right next to my foot.

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West Port actually got a mention on the BBC for having Icicles of Doom. Although, sadly they didn't actually call them that. (wbaenfarb though!)




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Icicles of Doom indeed. That one's about 50cm or so.

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As it warmed up (as in, went from -8C to around 1C) the snow began to thaw out a bit, leading to nice overhanging chunks of snow and ice everywhere.

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There were lots of broken gutters, and no doubt wires too. The aerial wires and electric wires on our roof were covered with lots of ice, rather like the ones in this picture.

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Very pleasing icicles.

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I think this building may be one of the reasons that West Port/Tollcross/Grassmarket got a mention on the BBC. Not a bad collection of icicles there.

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I liked the regular tracks the icicles made on this lintel. Though it must've been rather dirty up there...

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Bendy!

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These ones reminded me of shark teeth because there were a double layer.

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It was like this all round this building.

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Earlier on in the week, this wire was completely encased in ice. The ice and icicles broke off though.

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This is one of the chunks which had fallen off - it's about the size of an adult hand. Big enough to do damage if it clonked you on the head - luckily no-one was underneath this one. It did make the walk to work "interesting" though!

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More bendy icicles.

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Ice and snow. It's not a brilliant photo because it was getting dark as I was on my way home, but the snow build up on the side of the roof here ended up falling onto the roof and causing a mini avalanche. Further along the road, the Standard Life Building ended up having a huge avalanche of snow off the roof - someone managed to video it, and it was on the news. Coincidentally, we saw it on the TV in a pub in London shortly after we'd got off the train. We hadn't expected to trek all teh way down there to see Edinburgh on the TV!

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Snowy Edinburgh in the dark.

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Close up of the castle. The snow on the castle reflected the sky, which turned purple at night, resulting in a strange colour contrast.

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More of the same effect. The rock looks like it could be a black and white drawing, almost looking fake.

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A change of white balance. This is more similar to what it looked like to the naked eye. Also note how much snow is on the road below the castle.

That's the last of my snow-pictures, for now at least...

2 comments:

  1. ohhh my, my!!! these pictures are absolutely GORGEOUS! i've never ever seen snow irl! super jealous you even got to shoot these! the photos look like postcards :D excellent work.

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  2. I love Edinburgh during the winter. It is very beautiful. The view from the castle is just breathtaking. I recommend everybody to visit the Scottish capital during the winter season. 

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