I’ve got a couple of retrospective posts in the works, but for now, term time is back in swing – for the most part. With only three weeks of classes before revision week, and my final exams for the year looming at the end of this month, vet school is rolling through that strange ending time in between Easter holidays and my last real summer of relative freedom where the structure of life is simultaneously still unrolling and also folding up.
Nevertheless, there is still room to explore.
A few weeks ago, I finally made it past the perimeter of Craigmillar Castle. I routed from Liberton through park off Dalkeith. Emerging from the woods to see the castle cresting just over the hill is a pretty solid approach. I had a friend describe Craigmillar to me as “the perfect level of ruin,” and now that I’ve wandered the castle from its dungeons up to its roof, I’d have to say I agree. When a castle visit starts with the docent telling you how to find the oldest part of the castle and instructing you to “try every door,” it bodes well.
Now that Edinburgh has finally settled into spring, I’ve hopped back on my bicycle after a winter off. High gear hills and I definitely need some… reacquainting. Still, spending an increasing number of mornings surrounded by the new blooms and dogs out on early morning walks on the cycle path through Loanhead is a much better headspace to start the day in than where I’d usually been ending up by the end of the colder months’ cloistered bus rides.
I took a day before starting the school route to explore a few miles past my usual turn off back to main roads, and discovered a stretch of gorgeous countryside and bridge views I didn’t even know existed! After seven years in the concrete jungle that is Los Angeles, I am constantly floored by how much nature there is in Edinburgh. The city saturates with it, hills and glens and meadows tucked there in all the stretches of in between.
Makes Edinburgh a home easy to love.
The Nomad Vet 