And of course, I jinxed the weather
May 6th, 2007 by ianandoana
Rain, rain and more rain is in the forecast for the upcoming week. Fortunately the rain clouds held off yesterday and we were able to enjoy four locations featured in the Edinburgh Parks & Gardens Open Day. Great event, and I wish we were here in September to enjoy Doors Open Day, a similar concept for various buildings which are normally closed during the rest of the year.
We started off the morning with a coffee at the Farmers Market for Ian, then the 11 am tour of Calton Hill, guided by two park rangers. We even got free admission to the Nelson Monument as part of the tour - a nice bonus. You get great 360 degree views of the city once you climb the 143 steps to the top, and we learned more about the history of the area and the layout of the hill. The view of the National Monument is also nice and different:
No, that wasn’t supposed to be all of it … but they ran out of money building it! It’s also sometimes refered to as the disgrace of Edinburgh. It is quarried from Leith sandstone and cost about £1000 per pillar when construction was first started on it back in 1822. Guess that was a lot of money.
We could see the Canongate Cemetery from Calton Hill, so we made it our next stop.
They’ve made it easy to find the main ‘attraction’ in the cemetery, the grave of Adam Smith of “Wealth of Nations” fame: just follow the bricks …
… and find his grave:
Just next door, we visited Dunbar Close - a garden opened about 20 years ago, featuring typical 17th century trees - yew, evergreen oak, whitebeam and cherry - plants and herbs. The garden featured a couple of very authentic hobos too, complete with open beer bottles! Didn’t take their photo, although I’m sure they would have liked it.
We saw lots of interesting plants, however, including a lovely selection of cheirantus (common wallflower) - vibrant colours and great smell too.
After lunch we met another 2 park rangers who showed us around Princes Street Gardens and chatted about the history of the gardens and the various monuments within. The bare bottom of the figure at the top of this 18th Century cast iron Parisian fountain was considered too risque for the main thoroughfare so it was placed in the Gardens. At one point an air compressor was being used to power the fountain cleaning equipment and it caught fire, making this one of the only fountains ever to catch fire and require the aid of the fire department.
There was some kind of fundraiser happening all over town, with teams of people dressed up in various costumes soliciting donations. These two Incredibles looked a little tired already:
[…] I am a little behind on posting, as Oana always seems to beat me to it. So I’ll start by expanding a bit on her post about the open parks and gardens day on May 5. It was a little while ago but as a free event it deserves all the free advertising I can give it. In Vancouver, private parks and gardens are the exception rather than the rule. In Edinburgh, things are changing and public parks and gardens are becoming more and more common but private parks and gardens are still very common. When you walk around town you may notice that green areas are often surrounded by cast iron fencing with locked gates. In some cases you can pay a £20 fee per year for a key; in other cases you have to belong to some type of club or organization; in others, you have to live in one of the adjacent buildings in order to access a small piece of green space close to your building or area of work. […]