Happy Christmas to all our readers. However you spend today we hope you are safe and warm.
Will it be a White Christmas?
The longish range weather forecast suggests not. Instead it will be a balmy 8 degrees with sunshine for most of the day.
Read more about the weather for the days ahead here on the Met Office website.
Looking ahead
On 30 December in St Andrew Square there will be a screening of From Scotland With Love, a film made entirely of Scottish film archive and directed by Virginia Heath with a fabulous score by King Creosote.
Scottish National Gallery – the Turners
Although the National Gallery of Scotland is closed today it will be open on 1 January when the Turner in January exhibition opens.
Scotland’s famous collection of Turner watercolours was left to the nation by the great art collector Henry Vaughan in 1900. Since then, following Vaughan’s strict guidelines, they have only ever been displayed during the month of January, when natural light levels are at their lowest. Because of this, these watercolours still possess a freshness and an intensity of colour, almost 200 years since they were originally created.
With almost 40 watercolours on display, including dramatic landscapes from the Himalayas, the Swiss Alps, and the Isle of Skye, visitors will journey through Britain, Europe and beyond, leaving behind January blues in favor of Turner’s idyllic views of the world. Turner in January will also include a Smartify audio highlights guide, a brand-new addition to the exhibition for 2024. Freely available on their devices, visitors can immerse themselves further into Turner’s work through this highlighted guided tour of the exhibition, giving fresh insights and expanding on what is presented on the gallery walls.
Getting rid of your Christmas tree
If you have a real Christmas tree then there are a couple of options for disposing of the tree after Christmas.
You can drop the tree off at Cammo Estate for recycling. The tree will be placed around the field trees there to create “habitat piles”.There is no need to cut the tree up – unless you have to fit it into you car or van. Just leave it inside the pedestrian north gate beyond the bin on the right of the entrance (or behind the map/notice board at the south car park). If you are bringing the tree on foot then leave it on the grass on the right of the main entrance before the Lodge.
Friends of Cammo will then move the trees to the desired locations, and say they become homes for robins and wrens. The trees will eventually break down and feed the other growing trees over time.
The other alternative is to check when the council will uplift a tree from your address. Check on the council website here.
Christmas gift idea – buy a subscription for someone you love
A timely Christmas gift suggestion – buy someone a subscription to our monthly newspaper – we deliver by mail in compostable envelopes, and the subscription helps us to keep on publishing the news on a free to access basis. Click on the image below to sign up for yourself or as a present.
So far this year we have produced twelve issues and have already produced the January 2024 edition which will be delivered to our subscribers and stockists by 1 January.
And if you have any stories then do get in touch. editor@theedinburghreporter.co.uk
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
