Christmas night

This is what the pavement looked like when we made our way home after Christmas dinner last night. This was not water but sheet ice covering all pavements due to the rain on top of the snow then freezing. Fortunately I had ordered ice grips for both Mr Duck and I at the beginning of the snowy weather and they had finally arrived. I was very impressed. We were both pretty secure on our pins.

We are now relaxing after having had a very pleasant Christmas with some of my family. I have a bit of a lurgy so I'm feeling a little sorry for myself but am overall content. Hope you had as nice a Christmas as we did.

The thaw begins

The thaw begins, originally uploaded by impoftheyard.

Edinburgh was melting today. It was very slidey and all of the buildings were dribbling on passersby. It feels positively balmy compared to the -12 of last night.

Snowy Glasgow...

As you will have seen on the news, much of Scotland came to a halt yesterday with the wintry conditions. I was lucky enough to have nowhere I had to be, so I was able to cower at home for the entire day with the central heating on, and the oven on with the door open. Today there was no more snow but it was bitterly cold and beautifully sunny.

I ventured out today to meet a friend in a local cafe. I wish the snow would go away, especially as I need to get to Edinburgh tomorrow, but it still lifts my spirits being out in it on a sunny day. It was very beautiful and bright and to top it all, I had of a really nice lunch.

I took a couple of photos and may put others on Flickr later. This one just illustrates the state of the road with the hard packed ice. This is a main road in Glasgow. There are very few buses - I never saw any when I was out and there were none running between Glasgow and Edinburgh today. The highest temperature forecast for tomorrow during the day is -6. Keep your fingers crossed for me getting to Edinburgh tomorrow!

Still in the land of the living

I'm blogging from my phone so I'm not sure if this will work ok. Sorry I haven't been visiting my fellow bloggers or posting much here. I've been kept busy with my two jobs - especially since they spread me across three cities. I am not complaining though since I'm lucky enough to love my work.

I have fought all the way through the snow from Glasgow to Edinburgh today but I have no snowy pictures for you. This image is looking at my window through a little stick on optical filter on my phone. I forgot I had those and may playwith them a bit. I'm pining after my SLR but it's just too heavy with everything else I carry.

I hope you're all keeping cosy this weather. Bye for now...

Crossing...

Crossing..., originally uploaded by impoftheyard.

This photo was taken yesterday on Princes Street in Edinburgh. I liked the shadows and the colours. Notice the wonderful textured pavement so that blind and visually impaired people can find the crossing. Hm. Maybe that will make life too easy for them. I know! Let's put a heavy duty traffic cone in front of them for no particularly good reason. I get annoyed at things like this.

I posted a few other street shots on Flickr. I'm tending to blog from my iPad so it's limiting my to one picture at a time unless I fiddle with it. It's not a bad discipline though.

Hope your week is going well!

Autumn in Edinburgh

I'm really enjoying having part of my working week in Edinburgh and, yesterday, to top it all, it was the most beautiful autumn day. The autumn colours were gorgeous and the sky was an amazing clear blue. I love the long shadows too at this time of year. I'm blogging from my iPad so I could either show you the colours of the trees or these great shadows.

Now I'm having a quiet evening with the lovely man. Happy Thursday people!

A flower for you

photo, originally uploaded by impoftheyard.

I rarely look up due to limitations in my neck but after work yesterday, I was in Costa's in Waverly station and leaned back. This is the magnificent skylight that was above me. I took a few photographs and may post some of the others to Flickr later.

I had a couple of very full days at work and was tired at the end of the week. I am fortunate to be doing something that I love. Between my two part-time jobs I will have a five day week next week which I'm very pleased about. My social life, photos and drawing are taking a back seat at the moment but life feels good - in spite of having caught a cold.

EDIT: I'm blogging from my iPad and have just spotted that the photo has been cropped and so is not the original composition but I still like it! You can see the original over on Flickr.

Now it is the weekend and the lovely man is here with me which is nice. Hope all is well with you all and I hope to pop in to your blogs this weekend. I've been missing all your photos.