We seem to have reached the end of a week of glorious sunshine in Edinburgh, which coincided with my holiday week and the arrival of a new camera. I even found the first bluebell of spring starting to open out in our garden. I am not sure if it will risk opening fully as the temperature is still on the chilly side, but I’ve captured it in this picture anyway.
I’ve now reached 27,000 words in ‘The Coronation Quest’. Everything that’s happened so far is still completely inexplicable, both to me and to the characters, so the rest of the novel should be interesting!
Naturally, now that I’m in the middle of something completely different, my mind has returned to the novella I was working on last month (‘Adventure at the National Exhibition’). Because it was sunny and I had my new camera to hand I finally managed to get to Saughton Park to see the site of the Scottish National Exhibition of 1908. The park is very nearly within walking distance of my house, but I had put off going there all through the winter for various trivial reasons. There is nothing left of the buildings that were erected for the National Exhibition, but the layout is still fairly similar and I suspect the gates (situated on the corner of Gorgie Road and Balgreen Road) or at least the gateposts and access road are the same. The gateposts, however, look as if they were originally meant to have some sort of ornate decorative feature on top. The current ‘Winter Garden’ and rose garden are, I think, in the same places as they were in 1908, and there are quite a few formal garden features that may be part of the legacy of the Exhibition.
It’s good to have seen it all on the ground, as previous visits to Saughton Park have mostly involved standing around the children’s playground and in the queue for the ice-cream van.
Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery 