It was particularly dreich on the day I explored Edinburgh last year even more than when I met up with the wonderful Anabel. However as in Glasgow there was joy amongst all the gloomy weather.

My Edinburgh joy began on Rose Street , a narrow back street to the south of George Street in Edinburgh’s New Town. It was originally a mid/late 18th century housing development created by architect James Craig. By the early 19th century many of the houses had shops on the ground floor, and by the 20th century it was entirely made up of shops and bars. As you can see some of the bars have rather unusual names!

Dirty Dicks on Rose Street

The joy I discovered wasn’t in this bar or any other, instead I was delighted to discover visual signs of Edinburgh’s status as the first UNESCO City of Literature. In the 1950s and 1960s Rose Street’s bars were the haunt of Scottish poets, and their work is still being celebrated on Rose Street.

Rose street building

It was George Mackay Brown’s 1971 poem ‘Beachcomber’ which really caught my eye thanks to the wonderful art work of Astrid Jakel.

On the side of the BT Telephone Exchange her handmade paper cuts have been transformed into steel panels, and even on a grey day they look amazing. However you’re just going to have to wait until Monday to see her fabulous work. This was meant to be a Six Word Saturday, but as you can see only my title meets that rule! I am hoping if I cease the words now Debbie will forgive my verbosity.

37 thoughts

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  4. You are as bad as Jo, can’t stop nattering on! Six words indeed! But a lovely mosaic in a part of the city I didn’t see. Still there is only so much you can do in a couple of days.

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      1. Had a great weekend Becky. A lovely relaxing Friday Saturday. Went to K’s Mums 88 birthday party yesterday. Pity the food at the golf club wasn’t the best but good family catch up. Hope you had a wonderful weekend too x

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      2. Hiya . . . ooh sorry somehow mislaid your weekend update. Sounds like you have a fabulous time. Mine was a very quiet relaxing one – so much rain here at the moment!

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      3. Oh yes quite good. I am glad yours was as well Becky 🙂 You need to relax more I reckon. Rain is something that sort of makes you stay inside and relax. The rain ovewr the past month has been wonderful here. Today was 36C and humid 😦

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  8. Rose Street has some stunning art. When I lived in Edinburgh, the Rose Street Pub Crawl was a thing. Given I think there were 25 licensed establishments, I imagine that seldom ended well…

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  9. Even in gloomy weather, Edinburgh is a fascinating city with beautiful architecture. We didn’t see the clock or at least I don’t remember it. Thanks for sharing Becky and on our visit we had sunshine. To be fair, it was summer 🙂

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