#Edinburgh
One of the spires of Holy Corner, on a beautiful May morning
#Bruntsfield #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Architecture #photography #photographie #HolyCorner #church #eglise #kirk #tower #tour
Tomorrow, Wednesday 7th, at 5pm we will be protesting for the lack of pedestrian crossings on Ashley Terrace.
The ram’s horn squid (Spirula spirula) apparently one of the most elusive cephalopods. This tiny squid is only three inches long, lives in deep regions of the ocean, but occasionally the tiny delicate shells wash up.
#Wildlife #art #Photography #Forest #Wood #Wild #loch #scotland #winter #nature #PhonePic #art #arty #phonephotography #mountain #edinburgh #spring
#wild #photo #skeleton #blackandwhite #shell #squid
The Ghost Cat a curious little novel about a spectral cat haunting an Edinburgh townhouse over several generations — is sometimes enchanting, sometimes discombobulating. #Cats #Fiction #AlexHoward #BookReview #Edinburgh #Fantasy #Books #Book #Review #History
http://contentcatnip.com/2025/05/07/book-review-the-ghost-cat-by-alex-howard/
Book Review: The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard
The Ghost Cat, a curious little novel about a spectral cat haunting an Edinburgh townhouse over several generations — is sometimes enchanting, sometimes discombobulating and overall quite uneven
Rating: 🌟
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Animals, History.
Review in one word: Confusing
The premise of this book sounded enchanting. A cosy historical fantasy novel set in Edinburgh from the perspective of a cat! I mean this sounded like a book made especially for me. To say I was excited was an understatement!
The novel begins in the early morning in 1902. At a handsome home in Edinburgh’s New Town on the street of Marchmont Crescent, Grimalkin is snuggling next to his beloved human companion, housekeeper Eilidh. It will be his last day as a living cat. Sooner after he is plunged into a feline netherworld where he meets Cait-sìth who grants him eight additional lives. “For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.”
The novel follows Grimalkin as he witnesses the world’s changes for the next 120 years. This book starts off with an enormous amount of promise and the first few chapters are really engaging.
I don’t know what I was expecting but the tone of the novel seemed a bit silly. The narrative felt cheapened by fast-paced vignettes of the lives of people living in the home. Instead it’s a mash-up of key events and figures from throughout the past 100 years who all seem to converge on the one house over that period of time. So it’s a whistlestop tour of the The Blitz, the moon landing, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the 2008 financial crisis and so on. After a while in the same mode it all felt a bit repetitive and stale.
The individual vignettes don’t linger long enough for the reader to meaningfully connect with the characters who live in the house or to care what happens to them. At the end of each vignette set in a particular period, the author felt it necessary to explain the characters and the historical context of the vignette. This unconventional move of explaining a vignette after it’s told seemed like lazy writing and also seemed condescending, as though the audience needed to be given historical context in order to understand. There is also a confusing addition of which monarch was reigning after each vignette—to anchor the reader in time. These flourishes, rather than enriching the narrative, came across as being self-conscious and condescending.
On a positive note the main character of Grimalkin the cat is engaging and amusing in a snooty, feline way. The stories themselves were sweet and amusing but also at times discombobulating and lacking in meaning and depth.
The Cat-Sith, a kind of Grim Reaper figure who grants Grimalkin eight additional lives is a towering figure in the book who commands a lot of attention in the beginning, it would have been good to hear more from him.
As cat lover and devotee of all things feline I just couldn’t like Grimalkin much as a character. Each time he enters into a new era he finds so much to moan and complain about. There’s a sense that he’s a Luddite and technophobic Boomer (in cat form) who rails against any new changes in the world and spends a lot of time grumbling about new things and longing for the good old days. Some will find this charming and this belligerence rather cat-like, I just found it annoying.
I’m not sure if I would recommend this book, it’s a strange and surreal read with not much satisfying depth to it.
Content Catnip
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Through the Window: Edinburgh Reflections
A single, solitary table inside an empty office. A glass jar sits on the table, waiting for the next business to come and rent the room. Maybe a parting gift from the previous occupant?
Apertureƒ/8CameraILCE-7RM5Focal length24mmISO16000Shutter speed1/500s#Architecture #BlackAndWhite #Edinburgh #minimalism #Photography #reflection #Scotland #solitude #StreetPhotography #Urban #window
Through the Window: Edinburgh Reflections
A single, solitary table inside an empty office. A glass jar sits on the table, waiting for the next business to come and rent the room. Maybe a parting gift from the previous occupant?
https://inphotos.org/2025/05/06/through-the-window-edinburgh-reflections/
#photo #photography #Edinburgh #Scotland #BlackAndWhite #a8cTravel
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#bnwphotography #streetphotography #blackandwhite #urbanphotography #spi #classicmono #monochrome #fujifilm #fujixseries #x100vi #scotland #edinburgh
A wee reminder that our friends at Cymera, Edinburgh's festival of literary Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, will be held over the first weekend of June, and the programme is up now to browse (including online access too for those who can't make it in person)
https://www.cymerafestival.co.uk/
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Cymera #CymeraFestival #Cymera2025 #books #livres #festival #LiteraryFestival #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Horror #bookstodon
The #crown #spire on St Giles #Cathedral in #Edinburgh, #Scotland
🇬🇧 Monument (from 1906) in memory of the ‘Royal Scots Greys’, a former dragoon cavalry regiment (1681-1971). Parts of Edinburgh Castle with the Union Jack hoisted can be seen in the background.
🇩🇪 Denkmal (von 1906) zur Erinnerung an die "königlich-schottischen Grauschimmel", einem ehem. Dragon-Kavallerie-Regiment (1681-1971). Im Hintergrund sind Teile des Edinburgh Castle mit gehisstem Union Jack zu erkennen.
#NikonD7200 | 62mm | f/6,3 | 1/640 Sek. | ISO 400 | 10/2018
#RoyalScotsGreys #Dragoons #monument #DunEdin #EdinburghCastle #Edinburgh #Scotland #Alba #GreatBritain #UnitedKingdom #Schottland #Großbritannien #VereinigtesKönigreich #Denkmal #KöniglichSchottischeGrauschimmel
Morning bloom!
#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #flower #fleur #nature
Wider view of Edinburgh from Blackford Hill, including Edinburgh Castle, Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat, with Fife in the background, Marchmont in the middle distance and flowering gorse on Blackford Hill in the foreground
Edinburgh castle view from Blackford Hill
Chas Booth (he/him): "Figures revealed by @edinburghgreens.bsky.social show that more than two thirds of Edinburgh's walking, wheeling & cycling projects are delayed. We're calling for urgent council action to get them back on track." — Bluesky
#Edinburgh #cycling #ActiveTravel
https://bsky.app/profile/chasbooth.bsky.social/post/3lnzyttq5a22z