22nd August 2022 – Monday – 1.25pm
Cloudy and overcast
The odd spit of rain
Cool and still
No ripples on the water
So dark and still
So quiet
Full of peace
Emerge from under
bridge 5
Forearm marked with red graffiti paint –
To houses,
Blocks of flats
Smiling at the surprise of this
Another linseed stained
and smelling telegraph
pole up a grassy mound
The tow path is straight
and keeps on going
and going and going
Flanked by metal fencing then by
wall of stone held
up by concrete
People passing by
with shopping
on the way from
somewhere to home
Brief exchanges
between us
No particular interest
in me, moving
I’m thinking how it
feels to be moving,
AWAY from Festival City,
The centre of things
But as we move away
from one thing
we move towards
another, a
different centre
of someone’s centre
that is quiet and unfolding,
responding, undisturbing
I’m thinking of
what we value
and how an
indeterminate
unfinished
momentary
shared
encounter
or a backward
glance
might mean as
much or more
I’m thinking how we
live in our spaces
and places
Who and what we
value
who is missing
why
and what we
feel is enough
and more than
enough
I am an opportunist
mover
I know I was watched
from living room
windows
In the heart and the
centre of a new space
and a place in the
city
I made it to
Wester Hailes
today
The canal edges
are sharp and clear
and cut of stone
There is a very
different feel
And bridge after
bridge, after
bridge
Longing to go on
along the towpath
but will turn
back, re-trace,
tomorrow
A journey of
shopping trolleys
and
Wester Hailes Quarry
now a park
once “a giant
hole in the ground”
opened around 1750
to supply Edinburgh
with building stone
Sandstone
Hailes Stone
Carried on the
canal to build
Edinburgh’s New Town
And an open hatched
birds egg on top of
a stone wall
another floating in
the canal
and
a stone throne
a seat carved in
stone within the
wall, a resting
place, of aspect
and affordance
slowly
savouring
and tasting
this place
Hoping it remembers
me
and I feel welcome
here
NEXT: TUESDAY 23rd August 2022
11am
Travelling back
from where I came
Starting at the
Greenway footbridge
in Wester Haoles
that intersects
with Hailesland Road
Bus no. 3 – 30 – 33 – 21