Category: Street life (Page 1 of 7)

Cafe culture, arts, music and the way we live.

Granny's nightie, beautiful to look at but a devil to iron: Fay Young

Ghosts of census past and present

March 20, 2022 / fay / 2 Comments

Thursday 17 March 2022. Approaching Census night the old kitchen has the look of a Victorian museum, or maybe a low budget costume drama. Granny’s white cotton nighties hang in front of the shiny black range. Crisp and cool to the touch, they are the very devil to iron.

These are things of impressive though now impractical beauty and I rediscovered them during one of those lockdown cupboard clear-outs of 2020. On impulse, I dug them out again to spruce them up in time for our Scottish Census 2021 – postponed because of Covid. Removing the creases and wrinkles from yards and yards of best cotton, tackling the finicky fine tucks and broderie anglaise round the neckline, I’m thankful for the steam iron. A Victorian maid standing in the old scullery (more or less where I am typing now) would have been applying flat irons heated on the coal-fired range, and no doubt listening out for the bells summoning servants to other tasks in grander parts of the house. Let’s call on Elizabeth…

An empty wooden bench: a sign of things to come in lockdown

Deliverance is local: Covid benchmarks

March 26, 2021 / fay / 2 Comments

Our disinfected doorbell rings. Outside a smiling young man delivers a box of essentials: fresh fruit, toilet rolls, paracetamol…and just a little booze.

A welcome in sign outside the barber shop in Broughton Street

Hyperlocal signs of life: welcome to a braver new world?

September 29, 2020 / fay / 1 Comment

Our daily constitutional takes us uphill. Late afternoon, defying a gloomy weather forecast the sun breaks through. We could take that as a good sign. Well, why not?

'Bold Town' graffiti slogan on Edinburgh's legal graffiti wall 2015

Take to the streets: Edinburgh’s green space is not for sale

January 30, 2020 / fay / 0 Comments

A robin sings into the night from a bare branch tree. The sound, sad-sweet in the din and dazzle of Edinburgh’s Christmas markets, seems to come from another world.

Ripple effect: an engraved stone at Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta. The words are: Ripple, a fold, a fluting of the liquid element

In search of the emotional museum

January 17, 2019 / fay / 2 Comments

A gateway opens. Where does it lead? To a wider world? To inspiring people in unexpected places? To be honest right now I have no idea, but I’m tentatively opening the gate….

Why?

Exit without alcohol, good advice to party goers in St Andrew Square

Edinburgh Makars mak mischief

December 13, 2018 / fay / 0 Comments

At the mercy of the elements, does Henry Dundas
aloof in St Andrew Square still ponder having been
the most powerful politician of his day? Stewart Conn

Politicians come and go. While that stone-hearted rogue Henry Dundas looks down on the Christmas crowds let’s start with a moment of poetic (and blissfully Brexit-free) mischief. Here’s the very much alive and kicking Darren McGarvey…

A close up of the illuminate artwork at 17 Heriot Row

Putting HER story up in lights

January 17, 2018 / fay / 2 Comments

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Lamplighter

My daily walk was later than usual. After five o’clock in January the skies are dark and pavements less inviting. This is Leerie Lamplighter time in Edinburgh and I was remembering… Continue reading

Turning leaves of the Poetry Tree

September 20, 2017 / fay / 2 Comments

‘And so, let’s pause a moment here, draw strength –

and reclaim what is ours.’

Reclaiming St Andrew Square Ron Butlin

Green, gold, gone. Any day soon the leaves will turn and fall. And in a shady corner of Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square a young tree will reflect the colour of its relatives on distant mountains of Japan. Here’s a good news story for the telling. Continue reading

Shame the devil, tell the truth

August 25, 2017 / fay / 1 Comment

How history twists and turns. The at times black comedy tour, first improvised by comedians Jamie MacDonald and Harry Gooch six years ago, acquires newly topical significance at the finale in St Andrew Square. (Disclaimer: I’m a director of Walking Heads but there are many true words among the jests so I’m reblogging the story here.) Continue reading

A chalk drawing of SAY award on Paisley pavement

SAY Award: so Paisley 2021

July 1, 2017 / fay / 0 Comments

The Gender Neutral Toilets are warmly welcomed by ‘trans queer’ punk band Spook School though I tiptoe back out to the old school Ladies after encountering a row of urinals.

‘Hello World, welcome to Paisley,’ the smiling face of Paisley2021’s Jean Cameron beams a global greeting from the SAY award screen streamed live from Paisley Town Hall, ‘Enjoy the party. We’re delighted to have you with us’.

Categories