When you’re on holiday it’s a great time to slow down a little and try your hand at a hobby you don’t usually have much time for, such as sketching. Read more
For the benefit of Outlander enthusiasts who have read the series of books by Diana Gabaldon, we’ve been looking at the books with an ‘Eye’ to the Battle of Prestonpans. Read more
Since the release of the Outlander Starz Series 1 version of Diana Gabaldon’s tales of the adventures of Jamie and Claire, I’ve been returning time and again to the well-loved books to refresh my memory of the stories and complete the reading of the series (currently 8 main books, and many side tales).
I began to realise the power of Ms Gabaldon’s storytelling to attract visitors to Edinburgh when, back in 2013, Craigwell Cottage hosted the author and chef, Theresa Carle Sanders, known for cooking her way through the stories in her Outlander Kitchen. Read more
The birthday of Robert Burns is most often celebrated with a Burns Supper on the 25 January each year. Although he was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, in Edinburgh we have our share of memorials and tributes Read more
One day when I was searching the internet for photographs of Clarinda’s Tea Rooms in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh to prepare a recommendation of a good place to eat while staying at Craigwell Cottage I found a website called ‘The Girl in the Cafe‘.
On the site I was offered the opportunity to participate in a project of circulating a DVD, watching it and preparing comments. The DVD is of a film which was shown on BBC some time ago, and as soon as I started to watch it, I realised that I had indeed seen it before. I did enjoy viewing it a second time, but share the frustration which was so eloquently expressed by the protagonist Gina (played by Kelly Macdonald) that the G8 summit is held, there is a lot of noise about it in the press at the time, then we don’t hear anything until the next one.
We witnessed the protests at the Edinburgh G8 summit first-hand, indeed one of our friends was wounded in the course of his employment that week. My husband was shut in his office in George Street one evening, with he and his staff afraid to emerge because of hand-to-hand combat going on in Rose Street. We feared for our children’s safety that week as convoys of police cars and other vehicles moved around the city and reports reached us of fighting in the streets and destruction in normally quiet rural areas.
We were all moved when the concerts and marches pledging to ‘Make Poverty History’ pricked our consciences, but then the terrorist acts of 7 July in London grabbed the headlines and we all moved to the next horror on the world stage.
So it’s a good thing that movies like ‘The Girl in the Cafe’ are around to remind us that we are failing to eradicate poverty, but it’s too simplistic to state that it’s only the Third World where people are living in deprived conditions.
As for the love story which is the other theme of the movie, it’s one of Bill Nighy’s better performances – you do actually feel that he’s a sad lonely man with nothing to occupy him except his job. Kelly Macdonald has just the right pitch of mystery and misery to keep you guessing as to why she’s sitting lonely in a cafe too when Bill asks if he might join her. And of course in the end you don’t know if they will ever meet again.
Susan McNaughton
www.sandcastleholidays.co.uk
I’ve found a link to a photograph of a representation of Edinburgh in 1460, in which you can clearly see the river running through the Waverley Valley – which later becomes Calton Road.
The link to Edinburgh Photography website is: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_MAP/1_map_edinburgh_1460.htm#map
At Sandcastle Holidays we are committed to providing good quality self-catering accommodation whilst minimising the impact of our business activities on the environment.
Some ways which we are currently achieving this are:-
1. Using Eco Friendly cleaning materials in our cottages and supplying eco-friendly washing up liquid.
2. Providing newspaper recycling facilities at Sandcastle Cottage, and we will recycle newspapers at Craigwell Cottage if guests separate them from their other waste and store them for our collection.
3. Composting garden waste at Sandcastle Cottage and Craigwell Cottage.
4. Providing information for guests to enable them to use public transport facilities to reach our properties.
5. Replacing light bulbs with low energy bulbs when they need to be renewed.
6. Encouraging guests to switch off electrical appliances and not leave on standby.
7. Purchasing energy efficient white goods.
8. Using e-mail as much as possible for company correspondence to cut down on paper.
9. We minimise our use of print advertising, and no longer produce brochures about the cottages.
10. Providing on-line booking facilities for guests to cut down on paper.
11. Supporting local tradesmen for all our repairs and maintenance.
12. Providing showers for guests which use less water than baths.
