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My Edinburgh Press

My Edinburgh Press

everyday stories and observations about life in Edinburgh

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Category: Ireland

The West’s Awake

September 26, 2022 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 4 Comments

I slipped off to Clifden to find the west is not only awake, it is burnished in gold. Deep into autumn and a summer’s day emerges so warm and still that my swim across Dog’s Bay feels semi-tropical. Our host is pleased we are seeing the west well dressed and prettily turned-out. No, I am … Continue reading The West’s Awake

Out on the Ocean

August 6, 2022 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 1 Comment

There we were, out on the ocean, lilting and bouncing like the jig of the same name, quickly moving from high to low. Michael is skipper: deeply tanned face, hoop ring in one ear – a pirate look, without being too cliched about it. We’re in a RIB, a rigid bottom, inflatable around the rim, light … Continue reading Out on the Ocean

Summer at Home

July 18, 2022 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 1 Comment

In this place there is no bedtime and no set time to rise, both are done in keeping with one’s mood, whim, energies. In this place there is always energy. This place has loose joints, vitality, a spring in its step. Here, skin is smooth, wrinkles are fine tracings of smile lines, worries are pushed … Continue reading Summer at Home

Dublinesque

March 6, 2022May 24, 2022 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 2 Comments

-esque: in the style of, resembling (suffix, forming adjectives). There is no mistaking it, I am in Dublin. To borrow from a poem of Philip Larkin,, Dublin is so 'Dublinesque'. I disembark at Connolly, emerge into bright spring sunshine, and Dublin and I immediately remember each other. Here it comes, this vibrant feeling as I … Continue reading Dublinesque

I Love Trains

November 20, 2021 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 1 Comment

I’ve been travelling on trains these last few weeks. First, an early morning train from Antrim to Portrush, the sun not long up, mist lying in patches on the fields. It looks like the land is draped in a soft, white muslin cloth, which makes everything appear dreamy: half-real, half-apparition. A slick of dew coats … Continue reading I Love Trains

Encounter

October 21, 2021May 24, 2022 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 3 Comments

I knew when he set the copy of Good Housekeeping magazine to one side that he had been waiting for me. Not me specifically, but a version of me; someone on their own who would speak and not shrug; someone who would agree with him that it was a day for indoors; someone who thought … Continue reading Encounter

Destroyed but Not Defeated

September 9, 2021 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 1 Comment

Over four nights, I read The Old Man and The Sea to the two brothers, twenty-five pages before they went to bed. I did wonder at their eyes staring into corners of the room, seeming to follow spiders, or shadows, sometimes a hand reaching absently for another Ginger Snap. Were they listening at all, or were they … Continue reading Destroyed but Not Defeated

Seamus Heaney’s Grave

August 21, 2021October 24, 2021 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 1 Comment

I visited Heaney’s grave with my friend last week. First, we went to The Homeplace, the arts centre in Bellaghy that celebrates his poetry. I’d been before and I love it. Loved seeing how a poem moves through multiple iterations of scoring and scribbles and shifting around before he gets to something he’s happy with. … Continue reading Seamus Heaney’s Grave

Eight Wheels

August 11, 2021 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 2 Comments

There are four of them in the shed. For nine months of the year, they languish, the cobwebs build until May or June when they are taken out, one by one – rickety, arthritic, creaking – and are wheeled around the back lawn like an invalid in rehab. An assessment of what needs done to … Continue reading Eight Wheels

July Holidays

July 31, 2021July 31, 2021 ~ myedinburghpress ~ 4 Comments

Heat shimmers on the ocean and the ferry pulls away from the land and dolphins dive the length of Lough Ryan only to disappear when we reach the wide-open Irish Sea. Once docked, I drive to the Antrim coast, arriving before dark, dizzy from not having drunk enough water on the journey and I fall … Continue reading July Holidays

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About my blog

I hope my online Edinburgh Press will, in time, hold a similar collection in words to that which is in my Edinburgh Press at home.  I will add to it as often as I can building a collection of memories and observations bubbling up from below, breaking the surface of my mind. I’ll send them out into the world where you can, if you want, share them. Welcome to My Edinburgh Press.

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Recent Posts

  • One Week February 3, 2023
  • Better January 29, 2023
  • Hownam, Scottish Borders January 23, 2023
  • Heaney Healing January 19, 2023
  • The Personality of Days January 16, 2023
  • Me, Me, Me January 7, 2023
  • Merry Melancholy December 24, 2022
  • It’s Coming On Christmas December 21, 2022
  • Cold December 11, 2022
  • John Muir’s Long Shadow December 4, 2022
  • Glimmering Light November 30, 2022
  • Every Penny November 25, 2022
  • The Weight of Life November 20, 2022
  • The Old Lady Who Put the Stars in the Sky November 15, 2022
  • Glue or Rivets November 9, 2022
  • The Sea, The Sea November 6, 2022
  • The Meadows, Kitchen Table October 31, 2022
  • The Contented Loneliness of the Cold Water Swimmer October 28, 2022
  • St Stephen Street, Water of Leith October 25, 2022
  • Something Simple October 21, 2022
  • St Cuthbert’s, High Street, Lawnmarket October 20, 2022
  • Old Calton Burial Ground, Princes Street October 15, 2022
  • Bruntsfield, Blackford Hill October 10, 2022
  • Unborn October 8, 2022
  • St Andrew Square, Eyre Place October 5, 2022

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Recent Posts

  • One Week February 3, 2023
  • Better January 29, 2023
  • Hownam, Scottish Borders January 23, 2023
  • Heaney Healing January 19, 2023
  • The Personality of Days January 16, 2023
  • Me, Me, Me January 7, 2023
  • Merry Melancholy December 24, 2022
  • It’s Coming On Christmas December 21, 2022

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