a day out in edinburgh...

On Monday I took a rare trip to Edinburgh and apart from fighting through the festival crowds I managed to get round a number of great small and independent outlets of which there are loads in our capital city. Those familiar with Edinburgh will spot that (apart from one) these are all within the locality of the Grassmarket and this is mostly because I have almost no sense of direction (having orientated Edinburgh round the wrong way for years!) and, in the absence of being able to see the sea or any other water feature, too much directional information to deal with makes my head spin and results in meltdown (this also happens in department stores and shopping centres). Anyway I was pleased to have got from Waverley Station to along Princess St (for the west end craft fair), quick stop off at Habitat, then upto and down Victoria St to the Grassmarket, and I was particularly pleased to find Broughton St was roughly where I thought it might be. Result.

Clockwise from top left are Iconic (favourite for vintage & retro bits & bobs), Analogue (on recommendation from customer - fabulous & perfectly formed art & design bookshop & gallery - might just be new favourite shop), The Red Door Gallery (mecca for affordable artwork & lovely things), Concrete Wardrobe (designer run contemporary space championing Scottish design), Armstrongs (vintage clothing emporium), Owl & Lion Gallery (lovely print applied to textiles, notebooks & cards), Godiva (handmade independent fashion & vintage clothing), and lastly Blackcherry (cafe with extremely tasty baguettes and great pot of tea!).

ps. if you're in Edinburgh and you fancy a decent pint then the Beehive Inn (also on the Grassmarket) has been taking ludicrous amounts of ale from the Inveralmond Brewery (brewed by my lovely man!). I'm sure there might just be some left.