Monday, May 30, 2011

Edinburgh's Wild West

Today it is a Bank Holiday in Scotland, and the sun is shining (except for a brief and frenzied hail storm this morning). I don't get bank holidays where I work (we get them added onto our holidays so we can take them when we want), but I'm off work today because of Fibro plus stress plus totally insane dreams which I can remember perfectly (and which I acted out, as indicated by the bruises on my arm). This morning, moving, having limbs, and braining was something which happened to other people (seriously, I couldn't even figure out how to work gmail! And it wasn't until 7 new tabs later that I realised the plus button is not the same as the tab scroll button on Firefox).

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit more up to braining now, so have an entry with some photos. There's a street (well, more of a very small back alley) in the depths of upper-middle-class residential Morningside which masquerades as a snippet of the lawless American Wild West. Unfortunately, it wasn't dropped into Morningside by some long-lived and magical tornado (a là Wizard of Oz), instead, it was a normal alley of garages and workshops until a furniture maker (who specialised in Spanish-style furnishings) built all the wooden frontages as an advertising gimmick. This was a very long time ago, an some bits have rotted away, although most of it is being kept in decent condition. The decay is also pleasingly photogenic.

Saloon:
Saloon


Trading Station:
Trading Station

Street:
Main street...

Close up on the balcony:
Balcony

Jail:
Jail

I liked this window with chains, on the livery stable:
Window?

Cantina. Everthing else had a wooden frontage, but this was plaster or stucco:
Cantina.

Window detail on the Cantina:
Window

Sign on the Blacksmith's:
Blacksmith's shop

Stage Depot:
Stage Depot

Furniture Company - apparently this is the only sign which is essentially real:
Furniture Company

Gold Exchange - Change your nuggets here!
Change your nuggets here!

The hatch on the exhange door:
Hatch

Door handle on the exchange - they went to some effort, even with the small details:
Door handle

On the way home, we saw a rainbow:
DSC09259

It was a full arc:
DSC09265

Once it faded away, we moved on:
Rainbow

1 comment:

  1. Where is this place in Edinburgh. I was there on holiday in December, but I didn't visit this place. The Hogmanay was great, though. My wife and I had a great time. 

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