A Walk on the Wild Side

There was a loud roaring through the trees this morning as though a huge mythical beast was bearing down on His Lordship and me as we left the Dower House for a coffee in the café that doesn't pay its taxes, but is all to handy for people watching.

Storm Gertrude was only playing with us here in Edinburgh, she had better fish to fry up in Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides where transport and schools are shut until she leaves these coasts. I did hear that the Forth Road bridge was closed too, but here in the centre of the city, apart from the squalls of rain passing through at intervals, it was business as usual.

With HL still engaged on a secret mission for me, I was free to wander the streets with a circuit through Greyfriar's Kirkyard, the Grassmarket and up the steps to the Vennel and Lauriston Place.
The blip is of the buildings at the end of the Cowgate and looking over to the Hub at the top of the Royal Mile.

As I sit here in the sanctuary of my study, the sun is out momentarily but the windows are tear stained by the squalls of recent rain and a  bank of grey cloud is hanging  over Marchmont  across the sodden grass of the Meadows.

My extra photos are of the Grassmarket at the foot of Victoria Street and a slit in the Flodden Wall in the Vennel.