Woke up to a beautiful Edinburgh day and
had another lovely breakfast that Patricia made especially for me. I couldn't
possibly have a full British breakfast, I just wasn't that hungry which I know
she felt bad about but even modified breakfast consisted of bran flakes (my
request) which she dressed up with sliced banana and strawberries in a flower
pattern on top, grain bread toast with butter and this incredible fresh honey
spread, 3 fried eggs cooked in olive oil and so fresh and a sausage link. She
tried so hard to get me to eat more than one link but really it's just too much
food. The Scottish have the same desire as the Italians I guess to see their
guests very well fed. Patricia tried to convince me that if I'm going to be in Britain
for a few more weeks I needed that extra padding on my body for warmth. Well we
all know I've got enough padding already to keep me toasty in the Arctic if need
be. Food, like for the Italians, is clearly an expression of how good a hostess
you really are and I'm sure also for your family an expression of love.
And in terms of food expressing love or
certainly being used to establish a sense of warmth and protection the women
who sat with me and those two nice men on the train from Windermere to
Edinburgh a few days ago had mentioned a story which really fits in well with
my train of thought above although I may have already mentioned it, I can't
remember. Anyway she said how after going swimming in the freezing cold lakes
when she was a child her mother would be standing there with a warm towel to
dry off her shivering body as well as a "shivery biscuit" or “shivery
bits” (I’m not 100% sure which or maybe even “shivery bites”) which was a sweet
treat to help you stop shivering from the cold. I just love that story and
think it's so Italian to try and create a sense of peace and well-being through
food.
So off I went to the train station around
8:30am and caught the 9:30am train to Ipswich to head back to the country house
in Tunstall. John, Elaine and Josef, their son are off again to the Continent
for 3 weeks of seminars so I needed to be back to watch the furry ones.
Edinburgh station is really a lovely place
with the rod iron beams with ornamental details and the glass atrium above
through which you can see some of the gorgeous Georgian buildings. Also of interest in relation to the station
is the new staircase leading down to it from the other side of the bridge in
the old district. The staircase was designed by an architect who thought, insight-fully,
to make every step out of a different kind of marble. If one can say a set of
stairs (I mean the actual steps themselves) can be a fabulous sight than these
would be them. There was blue streaked, pink speckled and this exquisite green,
white and I believe yellow even marble that made me pause for a few minutes
just to admire its beauty. If ever you get to Edinburgh to climb the stairs,
it's one of those times an elevator (or lift here) is just not worth it. Here is a little bit about the artist and the steps as well as a picture I found on line but not the best representation of how fabulous they are "
The Fruitmarket Gallery is proud to have commissioned a new
work of public sculpture by Turner-Prize winning Scottish artist Martin Creed
for Edinburgh’s historic Scotsman Steps. Work 1059 is a feast for the eyes— 104
steps leading from the Scotsman Hotel on North Bridge to Waverley Station and
The Fruitmarket Gallery on Market Street, each step clad in a different colour
of marble. The work has been supported through the Scottish Government’s
Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund for Edinburgh Art Festival, as well as several
generous individual and corporate donations. Martin Creed is an artist of international reputation, who
makes work of the highest quality. His work is generous, direct and convincing;
with an economy of means that belies the complexity of its affect. In 2001, he
won the Turner Prize with Work No. 227: The lights going on and off. His recent
exhibition Down Over Up at The Fruitmarket Gallery was one of the highlights of
the 2010 Edinburgh Art Festival, with over 60,000 visitors and an extremely
positive press and popular reaction. The Scotsman Steps were built in 1899 as part of the
Scotsman Building for the Scotsman newspaper. The Steps are contained in an
octagonal stone tower and form a pedestrian link between Edinburgh’s old and
new towns. The Steps were somewhat dilapidated, and have been refurbished by
Edinburgh City Council and Edinburgh World Heritage. Creed’s sculpture is a key
addition to the refurbishment. Work 1059 sees Martin Creed re-surfacing the Scotsman Steps
with different and contrasting types of marble from all over the world, creating
a visually spectacular, beautiful and thoughtful response to this historic
artery. Creed describes the project as a microcosm of the whole world— stepping
on the different marble steps is like walking through the world, the new
staircase dramatizing Edinburgh’s internationalism and contemporary
significance while recognizing and respecting its historical importance. This
is both a typical Creed idea, involving as it does the direct engagement of the
public in a work whose simplicity belies its conceptual and architectural
complexity, and an appropriate response to the particular situation of the
Steps. Built into the fabric of Edinburgh, this new work will become a new and
joyful part of the experience of the city for both inhabitants and visitors
alike."
The train was such a great idea because it
was only 5 and half hours but also it went along the ocean for an hour or so
and past gorgeous little towns with magnificent cathedrals, bridges and castles
as well the natural beauty of cliffs and beaches and then vibrant green, sheep
strew, pastures along the other side.
And as a side note to sheep, in Scotland there are 5 million residents
and in the slow season 20 million sheep and in the high season 50 million
sheep. So several months out of the year the sheep outnumber the people 5 to 1.
Good thing these are docile little creatures, really just wool covered,
breathing lawn mowers if you will but certainly docile.
My train from Peterborourgh where I had to
switch to go to the final stop of Ipswich was cancelled due to track problems
so I got the train to Norwich where I would switch then to Ipswich. And it
worked out nicely that I did have to switch because I met a very, very nice man
and older women who kept me busy talking about travel and life in England. The
man works for the transit system and was actually in the closing ceremonies of
the summer Olympics this year riding on 1960's Lambretta scooters (of which
this man owns one) and they brought in the UK band Keiser Chiefs (I never heard
for them.) Most of the people who were in the closing ceremonies who were not celebrities
like this man were all volunteers and went to lots of rehearsals leading up to
the event. His girlfriend paid 1,000 pounds to see the performance. So it was a
very nice ride and I learned more about England. The lady was visiting her
daughter in Ely which we passed and is the loveliest town with several canals
and houseboats and a massive cathedral on a hilltop right in the center of
town. A beautiful place to visit if anyone happens to be in this area.
I got to Ipswich around 4:20pm and got
something to eat and did some grocery shopping for the next few weeks and was
on the bus to Tunstall by 5:25pm.
I was happy to see the furry ones when I
arrived but shocked to see Teddy, the doggy limping. He had been hit by a car
on Sunday when he was out with John. Teddy was playing in a large field and saw
a hare and went bounding after it. Hare's apparently the quickest in the bunny
family went off like a shot and Teddy in hot pursuit ran right into a car. He's
doing fine just bruised badly and limping but hopefully he'll be back to his
happy self soon. The person who hit him by the way didn't stop so even in the
country people can be so insensitive.
But for now Teddy has been getting lots of extra love and he even gets
to sleep in the living room instead of his bedtime cage so he's really happy
about that and gave me lots of love when I arrived.
