Well, Edinburgh can certainly do rain. This does sometimes give some interesting light – we always enjoy these moody skies.

The Scots are still going on about independence. (Colin says – some Scots). I think they will keep on having referendums until they get a Yes. Myself, I don’t think they have a lot to complain about – Yorkshire has just as many people as Scotland, and is equally badly treated by Westminster, but we don’t demand referendums and independence. Some say that the UK should be split in a line from the Wash to the Severn, and the north of England should go with Scotland, but how would we manage without all those City of London Bankers?

This is just by the Scottish Parliament – reminded us of the Aboriginal encampment by Parliament House in Canberra, but with bagpipes instead of didgeridoos.

This is for Charlotte and Alex to practice their reading.

This is for Rob, who likes cooking new things.

I felt sorry for this 18th century philosopher – he would be embarrassed I’m sure to see himself half naked on the street in a sheet. Notice the polished toes on one foot.

Notable for its crown shaped steeple.

I have bought a couple of scarves, first this year. Haven’t yet got a tartan one, but there’s time yet. I’ve seen one in blue, green, orange and yellow that appeals.

I like the decorated bollards.

This was a nice walk, and a nice morning for it.

There are a lot of parks in the city, and it would all look a lot better with leaves on the trees.

However, the daffodils are out. I think we will have another trip later in the year.

This is what we did on my birthday – we went to see the Kelpies…

Then we went to the Falkirk Wheel, the first and only rotating boat lift in the world. This takes the place of locks on a canal, the long bit is the approach from one canal…

This is the rotating lift, you can just about see the boats, one is pink and one is blue, each of those rotating sections is full of canal and the lift moves the boats from top to bottom and vice versa. When you get to the bottom, you can (if you have your own boat!) then sail away on the lower canal. We had a ride on this, you can hardly tell you are moving, you get lifted and then you get a little ride on the high approach, go through a tunnel and then turn round and come back and get lowered back down. It’s very clever! You can do in half an hour what would take 7-8 hours through a series of locks, however the slowness of it all confirmed my belief that a canal boat holiday is not for me. Note the quick change in the weather!

At last, a little bit of sun!

I think I should have got that stall holder doing something else – what is he up to?

The building with the clock tower is the Balmoral Hotel. As you can see, it’s very busy in town, can’t imagine what it’s like in August – was that when you were here, Victoria?

We saw this in the grounds of the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, so we thought it must be an artwork, We tried to guess the title. Colin went for “Shed in a High Wind”, I thought maybe “Storm Damage”, but no, it’s called “Pig Rock Bothy” and it’s not an artwork, it’s an art space – it’s for putting other artworks in. So there!

So, Edinburgh is a lovely city, but, although we may have felt differently with more sun and leafy trees, on the whole, we found Glasgow more interesting. Sorry Auld Reekie!

We have now moved on to North Berwick – only 20 miles, so similar weather!