Menorganikul; Edinburgh Botanic Gardens

As mentioned in earlier posts, Aitch got on the train south of the border and came all the way up to Edinburgh for an afternoon shared at the EBG.

We got lucky... the summery weather that had brought the country close to announcing drought conditions had changed over the preceding weekend: indeed, on the Monday before this Tuesday visit, it had poured rain on the Scottish capital and turned really rather chilly once more. However, our day shone bright, very warm, and just perfect for a saunter around some of the park - no way to cover it all in one visit. There will be more trips!

I drove The Grey over from the usual southside park-up by Mac1's place to spend the night on Arboretum Place, by the gardens. It's free overnight, and—for the city—relatively inexpensive parking rates through the day. In the morning, I was able to take my time for ablutions, breakfast, puzzles, and blogs prior to walking around by Inverleith Terrace to the East Gate, where, within five minutes, the bus carrying Aitch arrived. First order of the late morning was a cuppa and a bit of cake! As we sat and enjoyed the sunshine and the very good tea and carrot cake, we assessed the route that would optimise the finding of caches. There is no way Aitch could travel without her GPS unit and cache plotter!!! It turned out there were five to find - but two were on one side of the quite large park and three on the other, so we opted for the three, leaving something for another visit.

The peachy-coloured line is the meander we followed. You can see we only covered about one-third of the garden area. We were in no hurry and took every opportunity to stop and appreciate the bits we did see.

First, we went up around the rockery garden, which is always one of my favourites. It was on this part of the park that we found the dedicated area to those who had experienced transplants. I took the opportunity to remember my late niece, "The Maestro", who underwent a kidney transplant among many other health invasions. I didn't have a stone, so used an ivy leaf. This little haven is where you see Aitch sitting in the first photo above.

From here we sauntered a little uphill to reach the hilltop waterfall - you will see that in action in tomorrow's post, but here is the still shot...

There were further waterways and lots of botanicals - but I am reserving most of those shots for other posts!

The first cache Aitch picked up was at Caledonian Hall. Then we traipsed down the hill to view the Himalayan Blue Poppies, which were in their prime.

Then it was back up the hill, past the azalea garden - sadly mostly past, clearly affected by the recent spell of exceptionally hot weather - up to the pond by Inverleith House for the second cache. By this time (about two-thirty p.m.), we were ready for a meal, so we dropped down the west side of the hill to the main restaurant at John Hope Gateway. I had a very delicious veggie mousaka with salad, followed by a Moroccan orange pistachio cake, while Aitch enjoyed a well-filled roast chicken foccacia, then Isle of Arran Ice Cream. 

From here, we once more went uphill to the viewing point on the south side of Inverleith House. It has to be admitted that the line of sight over to the key spots in the city centre are a little obscured by the ever-growing trees, but we still managed to enjoy the line from St Mary's Cathredral in the west, travelling over to the castle, the camera obscura, the spires of St Giles' Cathedral, the drop of the Royal Mile as it heads down to meet The Crags and Arthur's Seat. Then there were all the bits between us and that... the 'new town', Dean Village, Stockbridge... it really is a little jewel of a city!

After taking that in, we were on our final stretch. A quick visit to the Aolian harp, then back down the slope following the Chinese Hillside Garden, zig-zagging past more of the aforementioned waterways, finally reaching the pond and pavilion - and the third cache. That's Aitch looking very satisfied in the third of the first lot of photos!

It only remained to find our way back to the West Gate and out to The Grey for a welcome cuppa, some fresh berries, a try-out of the summer jacket (as seen on recent stitches post), and before we knew it, time had come for Aitch to get back on the bus to the centre and to Waverley Station for her train back south.

It was an absolute delight to introduce my pal to these lovely spaces. I hadn't realised that she'd never visited there before, despite many trips to Edinburgh over the years. It may have been her first, but I am sure it won't be the last!

I spent another night on Arboretum, then took off north into Fife for a period of 'cocooning' ... I do love all my sisterly and old pal visits, but I do find more and more that I need lots of recoup/recharge time afterwards! Anyway, the weather really did turn nasty after this, dropping back into single-figure temps and blattering rains. Hey ho...