Behind the scenes at the museum





There must have been something on at the Museum of Scotland this evening - it was all floodlit like this on the way home from work and a gaggle of outside broadcast vehicles were parked outside. Incidentally, these snaps were taken around the same time of evening as I finished work as those rosy sunset photos of the Castle I posted a few weeks ago. What a difference a couple of weeks and the return to GMT make; it's now pretty dark here by 4 in the afternoon and very chilly. You can feel the sharp, cold air tightening your cheeks as you step outside (who needs plastic surgery for a lift? Stand out in the Scottish winter air for ten minutes!); by the time you get home your cheeks are as rosy as a basket of fresh apples.

In the morning the sun is very low in the sky and seems to rise from behind Castle Ridge; very dramatic - the ever-changing play of sun and shadow every morning is like a combination of a Turner landscape and a Colourist painting. Tonight the sky was very clear and a huge full moon hung over the city; even Mars was clearly visible, twinkling a pinkish-red. I thought for a moment I saw a green flare from Mars; it may be an invasion of tripods or it may have been the green man on the pelican crossing on the edge of my peripheral vision. With nice timing I'm just finishing off Fool Moon by Jim Butcher in which Chicago PI/wizard Harry Dresden is investigating, yup, you guessed it, werewolves. "Werewolf? There wolf; there castle." (name that film!).

You need the fire on now, you need to swap to your chunky boots and try and recall where you put your gloves several months ago, air out your big, heavy coat - yes, it is winter in Scotland. Tonight the full moon reflected in broken ice sheets on puddles and oh, how warm and welcoming every pub looks in the cold, dark night (which is of course why we have so many of them, it's not just because we're boozehounds).