Monday, May 29, 2023

A research trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens


The research highlight of this trip - that is, the planned research highlight, as opposed to moments of inspiration that occasionally drift in front of me as I walk through a temperate rain forest - was the Aeolian Harp Pavilion in Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens.  It was built in 2012 by harp maker Mark Norris from a wych elm that had fallen victim (as almost all British elms have) to Dutch Elm disease: the huge stump remains.  I guess - if the wind ever blows through it (it was a still and sunny day) that it sounds its own lament.



These Botanic Gardens are spectacular, and wonderful.







Exhausted, we caught a bus to Leith, and wandered around, and I introduced Alice to my favorite tongue-twister: The Leith Police Dismisseth Us.  Try it.  Now try it again, faster.


 

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