Category Archives: Travel Tales

Out and About in Edinburgh

I have to say quite truthfully, I was both laughing and stunned when I saw these people out the front window of the house where we are staying in Edinburgh yesterday afternoon. The temperatures are so icy that I go out each day dressed in layers — long underwear top and bottom, a turtleneck, a pair of jeans, a sweater/jumper over the top, and then a thick wool coat and insulated gloves. Mark was dressed in similar layers yesterday and he still wasn’t completely comfortable (as he told me several times!).

So how were the people in the picture below coping with the wind swishing by their faces and heads? Is this a case of Scottish Madness???? Or are they just a much sturdier set of folks than we who have been living in Australia for so long?

Mad Scotsfolk on Wintery Drive

We had a day off yesterday and we walked around the streets of the city. Most people were bundled up appropriately, but I had to wonder how the kilt clad men managed as the icy winds swirled around us. Or do they even notice the temps after a lifetime of such conditions?

Edinburgh Street Piper

Happily, the wintery conditions mean that there are far fewer tourists here than during the spring, summer, or festival seasons. But Edinburgh seems to be bustling with activity in a way that I didn’t find the norm during my last visit 15 years ago. So trying to stop on the pavement to take a photo without getting jostled is actually a bit of a challenge. Ah well!

Edinburgh contains an abundance of photo subject matter and the architecture is substantial, mainly built of stone, and frequently on the monumental scale. In a five hour period, I took over 300 photos yesterday.

Sphinx Atop National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh

I’ll be back in a day or two with another report before we leave Scotland mid-week. Stay tuned for more!

Eco-Edinburgh — Part Four

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

Champagne time at GreenWorks

We celebrated the roof topping out with some champagne last night in the workshop. Now Mark and I are taking a break today to go out and about in Edinburgh with my cameras.

Soooooo — instead of a daily report, here is a click-on link to a slideshow of all of the action as it unfolded over the last week.

GreenWorks SLIDESHOW

Enjoy! And please feel free to leave comments if you are so inclined.

Also, don’t forget to have a look at the website of Greenworks in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Bye for now!

Eco Edinburgh — Part Three

Another day at GreenWorks in Edinburgh, Scotland and the sun-filled blue skies have brightened everyone’s mood. The building work is proceeding apace and the structure looks a bit more complete every day.

Progress on the overhead structure

Director Ellie Mills is normally ‘chained’ to the office and making ‘on the fly’ decisions, sometimes with baby Sula in a backpack. But she was clearly relishing the chance to get outside in the sunshine and wield a hammer today as she nailed timber shingles to the end of the emerging building structure.

GreenWorks Director Ellie Mills nailing shingles

Late yesterday afternoon designer Ola was outside with a colour chart trying to decide what the final colour scheme for the building would be. And baby Sula was, thankfully, happy to be passed around and amused by whoever was handy at the moment. Here is a shot of Sula and my husband Mark last evening and you can tell from Sula’s rosy cheeks that she has been out and about in the fresh air. Just as I was about to upload these photos, Mark mentioned that for a person who normally enjoys the company of a cat, babies are not that bad on occasion.

Ola checking the colour chart

Mark keeping Baby Sula amused

I’m away for now — out into the sunshine to take some photos of the materials in the yard. Then I’ll be back to the office to stay warm while I edit photos and write survey questions for the volunteers. More soon!

Deborah editing photos and public relations material

Eco Edinburgh — Part Two

In the short few hours since my departure last night, a structure had begun to form atop the decking. It was Day Two for us here at GreenWorks in Edinburgh, Scotland and the workers were powering on, enjoying every moment of non-rainy building time.

Wall building

Walls in progress

Our hosts, Ellie and Simon and baby Sula, seem to have a revolving door of volunteers for this project and I admire their ability to think on their feet, balance an 8 month old child in shifts, and steer a group of volunteers who are working with power tools. Fortunately we have a mature group of people here with rather a lot of construction skills amongst them. I am the odd-one-out since my tools are cameras and a computer, but I’m thrilled to be able to bring public relations and photojournalism to the mix. The hours do pass quickly in a bit of a blur though!

Ellie in the office

Simon and Sula in the office

Off to edit photos. More tomorrow!

Eco Edinburgh — Part One

The hour that we arose — shortly after 8 AM — was unfamiliar territory for me. 10 AM is more my norm when we are not on the road and travelling. The view from our hotel window in Yorkshire revealed very little but fog-shrouded landscape. Setting off slowly, we hoped that the white-out fog would burn off by 10 or 11 in the morning, but that was not to be. We spent a very slow and tedious day driving at a snail’s pace from Yorkshire to Edinburgh, frequently never surpassing 40 mph as we traversed one construction zone after another.

The TomTom satnav, now renamed Thomasina, served us well for two days as we drove north and never got lost once. And truthfully, getting through the streets of Edinburgh was a lot less stressful without the need to constantly look up and down and check the map.

Mark and Ola laying out timber cuts

Within a half an hour of arrival, Mark had changed into work clothing and was out in the workshop at GreenWorks in Edinburgh, Scotland while I received a quick tour of the office from Ellie, one of the directors of Edinburgh’s first green building store.

The concept is simple and very admirable although a bit labour intensive — re-claim and re-use instead of tossing perfectly good timber and other assorted building materials in the land-fill.

The material comes from a variety of sources — some mundane and some unexpected. The company has a van and they do pick-ups (for a fee) of surplus building supplies from construction sites, joinery shops (cabinet and furniture makers), private home or business owners who have completed a project, utility companies, and many other sites.

Interesting materials also have arrived from the remains of theatre sets and the dismantling of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. GreenWorks is not trying to compete with architectural salvage companies but instead are trying to educate the public about the value of re-using timber instead of buying new and often lesser quality timber from a home improvement superstore.

Norm and Jim building a deck in the side yard at GreenWorks in Edinburgh, Scotland

The current focus is building materials, but things are about to expand into the leafier kind of ‘green things’ as the side yard is being transformed with the construction of a floating deck to be used as a multipurpose space for demonstrations and a food production garden centre is on the way.

Keep watching for more posts from Edinburgh in the days ahead!

Life Amongst The Bikes in Amsterdam

Look left, look right, and be aware! There are more bicycles in Amsterdam, used on a daily basis for every purpose imaginable, than any other city in Europe. According to GreenAnswers.com, 40% of the total traffic is made up of bicyclists.

Many other cities around the planet now aspire to be equally bike-powered and green, but ask yourself these questions while you peruse the photos.

Could you ‘car pool’ your children to school without a car — or shop for a week’s worth of groceries and get them home via pedal-power?

Bike riding parent with children

What if you purchased a piece of furniture, didn’t want to pay a delivery fee, and decided to just have a go at bringing it home on your bike?

Walking the table home

Can you hitch a sidesaddle ride on a bike for a breezy afternoon outing?

Hitching a ride on the back of a bike

And as to parking them? Bikes are chained up simply everywhere including along the railings of bridges and fences, to window grilles along building fronts, and to lamp posts.

Bike on a bridge

Even though bikes in this city are chained/latched/attached to anything that seems remotely stable and firm — as you can see by the sign below, that is not always appreciated by the owners of various buildings!

No parking sign for bikes

Another option is to park in someplace safe and secure like this 3 story garage for cycles which is looked after by security guards and is situated quite close to the front of Central Station. BELOW: 3 level bike parking lot. Photo by Mark Harmes

3 level bike parking lot. Photo by Mark Harmes

During our recent 8 day visit, I was especially impressed with the Bakfiets that I saw simply everywhere carrying children of all ages and sizes in the front section as the parents steered from the back. And whether used with or without the hooded ‘convertible top’ to keep the child passengers or shopping dry, the families that we saw using these sensible vehicles all looked relaxed and happy in spite of the winter temperatures.

Bikes with attached cart-style child carriers

This is one of the most charming cities in Europe and any visit to Amsterdam is made all the more delightful by being able to navigate through this beautiful city and enjoy scenic streets which are not clogged with noisy or air-polluting cars.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photography is by Deborah Harmes.
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Marching Through History in Amsterdam

How small they were, those suits of armor. How diminutive were the heroes that defended the realm and bore that metallic outer layer upon their arms and chests. Marching, marching — doing what was expected of them.

Suits of Armor

Suit of Armor

I was surprised when I stood quite close to several of the exhibits and realized that the men who wore those metal suits were, in many cases, quite a bit smaller of frame and shorter of stature than most contemporary 20th or 21st century women. And these tiny men fought quite furious battles on land and sea to conquer lands or defend their homes. They were certainly smaller than I am and I’m not a very big person at 5 and 1/2 feet tall.

Perhaps it was the gloomy palette of the winter day outside and the icy-gusty rain, but between the paintings and exhibits of military life or the life aboard a sailing ship in both the Rijksmuseum yesterday afternoon and the Amsterdam Historisch Museum today, I experienced a strong sense of sadness for those lives that may have had intense boredom or bodily discomfort layered into their daily existence. I actually shuddered at one particularly vivid picture of two ships, side by side, engaged in a fiery, bloody battle. None of it seemed remotely stirring or the least bit grand or glamorous.

Exterior of the Rijksmuseum

Our afternoon at the Rijksmuseum was quite pleasant in spite of the mid-winter crowds and it was marvelous to revisit the work of Rembrandt after two decades, see his evolution as a painter, and compare the work of his contemporaries.

Corbel known as The Milkmaid

Wooden statue from 15th century

1960s-70s Kitchen

For me personally, the most enjoyable parts of our visit to the Amsterdam Historisch Museum were the fine wooden carvings that were displayed on the exterior of buildings during the 15th through 17th centuries and the exhibits on daily life in Amsterdam. There were cross sections of model houses that showed how the citizens of this city lived in various eras and set-ups of entire period rooms.

Some of the exhibits were both difficult to view and eerily fascinating at the same time. We had walked through room after room, era after era until we reached the top floor of this large museum and we came upon an entire series of displays that illustrated what life was like for Amsterdam citizens during the 5 year long German occupation of World War II. It was compelling viewing and I have included a few photos below of propaganda posters that can be enlarged if you click on them.

Picture of Judenstrasse during German occupation

German Propaganda Posters

This is a particularly comprehensive one-city-only historical museum that is housed in a splendidly large building. The exhibits are quite easy to understand, even if you don’t speak a word of Dutch! In fact, almost all of the museum has both Dutch and English captioning. A visit to this museum is a highly recommended way to spend several hours in Amsterdam.