Living in denial

It’d been a month, and I had not managed to get to the sea, even though the shore of the Forth of Firth is only a mile from my house in a straight line. An attempt was made the day before, in spite of the unconvincing weather forecast – I wrapped up warm, prepared to face the wind and chill, stepped outside and had immediately had to fight the urge to step back in. In the face of gale force winds flagellating my skin with frozen rain, I had to admit I was in denial and we went to the National Gallery instead. The weather was much more bearable when observed from behind the great glass windows of the National Gallery café.

Inclement weather. Brr.

National Gallery cafe.

It was a perfect gallery day, and we spent a good hour in the Italian section. For a long time we studied ‘the Triptych’ by Joos van Cleve – it abounds in interesting and humorous scenes cleverly hidden in the fantastic landscape which form the backdrop to a stylised scene of Jesus being taken off the cross. There is also a minor work by da Vinci, a Madonna which was displayed without any protection in spite of already having been stolen once in 2003.

After a while I pretended the weather had improved and dragged Skinnytoes towards the meadows.

Very patient, very cold dogs.

We walked through the university area, reached the Meadows and gave up – it was just too bloody cold.

Sticky buns.

Fortunately another café presented itself, and we munched lovely fruit buns made on the spot by the smiling baker.