Yesterday

 It was dreich as l got the bus over to the Carronade Wargames show-

There are no photos of the show as near the entrance Warbases were selling off made mdf buildings for a fiver each. They had loads ! These are the ones l got-

This meant l had a carrier full as I walked around the show and no hands free to take photos!

These were my only purchase. However Jim D ( veteran wargamer and fellow Blogger) had brought me a gift. It was good to see him ( and others l caught up with who said hello) and I was surprised and delighted with the figures he gave me. They had been part of the collection of one of his now deceased friends.

Lovely fine castings of mounted knights, some painted that will get a chance to fight on.

Back in the Duchy later in the day the weather allowed us to use the pizza oven-

A good day indeed.

The Dell

 After meeting at Happy Valley we walked along the canal to the Dell.

Incidentally I found online this picture of Happy Valley pond in the 1960s

Walking along the canal.

Walking along the Water of Leith. Note heron who was later dive bombed by a crow until he flew off.

We walked along the former railway line to Balerno and came to the tunnel at Colinton.

A lovely way to spend a morning. We stopped in Colinton village for coffee and then walked back retracing our steps.

Happy Valley and the Dell.

 Yesterday l met up with an old friend for a walk through the part of Edinburgh l grew up in - Craiglockhart. We were accompanied by her dog. A most pleasant walk it was too.

What is left of the castle, Napier University and the former hospital at Craiglockhart. See -

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1484566/

When I was growing up it was a convent.

Walking along the foot of Craiglockhart hill .

The tennis courts where Andy Murray and many other famous players played.

The pond at Happy Valley, once popular for boating and skating in winter.

https://www.eastercraiglockharthill.org/feature-page_001/

https://www.eastercraiglockharthill.org/news/historical-postcards-of-craiglockhart-pond/

An art work at Happy Valley 

https://www.eastercraiglockharthill.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/War_Poets_%20Leaflet.pdf

https://web-cdn.org/s/1216/file/gallery/hillside.pdf

Well that’s part one. Part two will take you readers to the Dell and Colinton.

That was the week that was

 Real life has been busy of late, with the garden and other matters demanding my attention. The MLS game never got set up , but it will, I am chill about that.However l did manage to add swords ( ridiculously oversized with hindsight, must think how to remedy this, probably by cutting down in size) to the Del Prado cavalry and provide them with new uniforms via paint.

The weekend holds, amongst other things, a brief foray to the Carronade wargames show in Falkirk,  visitors being hosted and more gardening, weather permitting. Hopefully there will be time for hobby stuff too.

May Day

 

Saw on someone’s blog , can’t remember where, the cunning plan of using Del Prado cavalry for 54mm gaming. An excellent idea I thought and sent for these off eBay, for a very reasonable price. They are sold as Turenne but will serve as 1688 cavalry. A wee sash paint job and weapon change is all they need

Currently reading. The book came today and is an excellent read.

Origin have just opened a new coffee shop in Edinburgh in College Street. In fact it opened today. Well worth a visit 

The beech hedge has finally got some green on it at last. I’m not surprised it was reluctant to arrive due to the weather we have been having.

A wee thought for May Day…

P.S finally got round to watching the remake of “The Wicker Man” last night. What a disappointment! Not a patch on the original at all!

Yesterday

 Yesterday saw me , aided by daughter number two, bringing order to chaos. In other words do some gardening. The wet weather has meant yesterday was the first grass cut of the season. After that was done we worked on the back area near the shed-

My daughter’s hard work in bringing order to chaos. The station and track are ready to be moved to a new home at some point. It would be great to have some progress on this over the summer…

A new friend discovered near the back of the garden and the pond.

Action photo taken unbeknown to me.

Also over the weekend l am trying to weed out the books ( making sure not to get  of those l would be tempted to buy again) l will never read again or have lost interest in. A few hobby items have been looked out too. I want to downsize a bit as well as making room for new collections. Don’t know how long this impetus will last , on all fronts, but l am trying…

Reading currently

 Currently reading-

 This really has been an excellent purchase, well written and full of fascinating details , statistics and individuals.

Finally tracked these down on the bookshelves this afternoon. This will keep me going until the Nick Svendsen book arrives…