Brackin’ da Bröd

I’m back from my wee gallivant to my adopted hometown and ooh but I am flat upon my return.

No I did not have an accident (nor make Flat Stanley think; “Thank the Lord! At last!”), t’is melancholia that ails me….come on, all together “Oh! Woe is me!”

It is, more than likely, just a case of the post-holiday blues and missing all my friends, but Edinburgh definitely has spell on me and I do miss it when I’m not there. Being a true Gemini, of course, I feel the same about Bressay when I am living in Edinburgh – typical!

Even though I was in Auld Reekie catching up with friends and soaking up the atmosphere in my old haunts, I was actually staying with a friend outside the city in Rosewell, Midlothian.                                                                                                                                 I have a bit of a love for wee towns outside of Edinburgh too having lived in Dalkeith for a while, during college. Towns in Midlothian often get a bad rap because of the crime rates and the drinking/drug culture, but I think, in many cases, the problems are heightened because they are small, everyone-knows-your-business places on the fringes of a city - the drink and drugs problems are the same everywhere you go these days…not that that’s an excuse or that I’m being laissez-faire.

Anyhow…where was I…oh yes, Lothian towns! It’s the green and woodedness I like so much and the history behind them. To look at Dalkeith’s sad little 70’s style town centre, every shop either a charity shop or a bank (or a pub) you wouldn’t believe it had much history.

Rosewell is an old mining town and very close to Roslyn Chapel. There isn’t much there apart from the usual shops, churches, school and pub, but its definitely got character.

In a lot of ways it’s a sad place too though. You can see with the naked eye the effects of living on top of old mines. Most of the houses on the high street have literally fallen down, fields noticeably sag in the middle and one of the roads, which leads down to Roslin Glen, has been closed because the road has given way. (I have my own photos of what it looks like now (worse!) , but for some reason i can’t post them today…gremlins!)

We went on a couple of walks around the village and surrounding area. I really enjoyed a walked down to Roslin Glen and the area surrounding the chapel (which we never went to this trip, but have been before). Some of the places we visited had a definite vibe, if you believe in that sort of thing, which I do. I don’t profess to having any ability, but something’s just happen and you can’t explain them. For example at one ruined building along the walk we stopped and every time I walked into a specific part of it I had a powdery substance in the back of my throat and was actually coughing it up and spitting it out, I would come out and go back in and the same thing happened three or four times, I felt as if I was choking…it was only afterwards I was told that I had been standing in an old gunpowder mill. For the most part though the walk was a nice experience – there were deer too apparently…I was busy calling to the birds and listening for their reply mad woman that I am.

Anyway after a week of visiting in Edinburgh it was back up the road and an afternoon in Aberdeen before getting on the boat. My friend and I paid a little visit to the gallery. I love wandering around there and always head to the impressionists bit to get a glance at the little Monet they have there. The Burns Zig Zag exhibition was just ending on Monday but we managed to see it. I saw it in Edinburgh in January, but my gallery going companion hadn’t. I think the key was to go in one door and start at the beginning of his life, but we “zigzagged” and went in the wrong door, coming in as he was going out as it were.

I had forgotten about THE portrait, I shan’t ruin if for others, but if you are going to see it, when it reaches a town near you, look out for the famous Alexander Naysmith portrait of Rabbie and watch it raise a few eyebrows, literally!

I love Robert Burns, if he were around today I reckon he’d still be a heart-throb, having all the ladies after him like George Clooney or something! Its awffy sad the way his life ended, his final letter is more of a tearjerker than any poem, asking a friend for the loan of some money.

I read Tinder Heart recently (I think it’s by Hugh Douglas) which is sadly out of print now, but that is a very good biography of his Life and loves…I shall have to try ebay to get my hands on a copy as it was a good reference book.

Oh well fellow bloggers I am away to do some sense as they say! Its my friend Jam’s birthday on Friday, as mirlnlass, mentioned so that’ll be a good day of catching up and a bit of pampering thrown in for good measure, so hopefully that’ll banish the post holiday blues.

Also, in the further adventures of morrolesssocks and mirlnlass, we might possibly be thinking about going to Tai Chi classes - discussions are abound!

I suppose I should get a grip over missing auld reekie and listen to the wise words of Rabbie himself, Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met-or never parted, We had ne’er been sae broken-hearted”

And to you all “cock up your beaver” til next time!

Today’s Blog was brought to you by a mug of tea, ginger snaps and Ballad of the Broken Seas by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.

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