The Princess Street Gardens Floral Clock

Taken from Information from the Edinburgh District Council

One of the best loved attractions in the City is the Floral Clock in Princes Street Gardens, which as well as being a work of art, is also a dependable timekeeper.  The layout design is a big attraction.

Mr John W. McHattie, who was then Parks Superintendent, conceived the idea of a Floral Clock in 1903.  The works are housed in the plinth of the Allan Ramsay Monument and the hands are controlled by a lateral shaft that moves the minute hand every 30 seconds and also controls the hour hand.  The hands measure approximately 8ft and 5ft respectively.  The circumference of the Clock is 36ft, width 11ft 10ins.  When filled with plants, the large hand weighs about 80lbs and the small one 50lbs.

The Clock is designed by our expert Technical team in the Parks Service. Quite a variety of flower and foliage plants are used in the design.  All are of a dwarf nature, suitable for carpet bedding.  Most of the plants are annuals such as Lobelia, Pyrethrum and Golden Moss.  The remainders are succulents with Echeveria and Sedum’s in variety.

The plants are grown in the City of Edinburgh Inch Nursery and the main face of the Clock and Motif design is planted up in special stainless steel wire baskets in the early spring, which are transferred to the Clock site. To plant the whole area it takes two men five weeks.  After that, one man looks after the trimming, weeding and watering for the rest of the season.  Approximately 30,000 plants are put in during this period.
For a number of years the design and layout has been of a topical character.  Over the years designs have included the Robert Louis Stevenson's Centenary, the Festival of Britain, the Bicentenary of the Birth of Robert Burns, the 10^th International Botanical Congress and the Centenary of The Salvation Army. 

Auld Reekie Rants: Gonnae No...

via auldreekierants.blogspot.com

The last letter ever written by Mary Queen of Scots is to go on display for the first time in 30 years. The 422-year-old manuscript - written six hours before her execution - will go on show at the National Library of Scotland.

This is how it may have gone if written (typed?) today.

Hi Henri
How's tricks across the water? Hope you're well and not getting too much jib from that Sarkozy bloke. LOL.
Things aren't going so well here. The Edinburgh binmen have come out on strike again and the place is full of bloody tourists. And the trams? Jeez, don't get me started on that...
Anyways, I thought I'd better tell u that my tea's oot, so to speak. I'm sitting here in Northamptonshire just surfing the net and trying to chill. Which is difficult 'cos I'm for the chop in a few hours. That bitch Betty has finally decided to get rid and so I'm for the offski. I've just updated my Facebook page with Mary, Queen of Scots heading for the executioner's room and she's added Elizabeth I likes this...
The execution is live on Living TV. I don't think they get irony on that station. RAFL!

Could you do me a favour, m8? Could you make sure my servants get their wages? You know what the bloody Council's like and I would appreciate your help. Oh, and could you text Max Clifford? I thought he was sending the photographers from OK! magazine but there's no sign yet.
Anyways, I'm off now. Or at least my head will be in a few hours. LMAO!

TTFN

Mazza
xx

Ha Ha Mike Smith

Posted via web from poobumwee's posterous

Braveheart versus The Ego and Friends

Image via Wikipedia The Scottish Nation stands as one as the Scottish Cricket Team takes on the Auld Enemy for the first time in a Cricket One Day International in Edinburgh. As always, the weather looks like it will be the winner.

Scotland are good at this, with an honorable rain assisted no score draw against the Indians in the Twenty20 World Cup in Durban and in a One Day International against the Aussies in Edinburgh in 2005, notable examples of the fortuitous intervention of the elements and a lot better than the humiliations of the like of Argentina 1978. Better an honourable rain assisted draw than a shellacking I say.

That said, I was intrigued by the weather in Adelaide, mid winter and Scotland mid summer.

Come on Down. At least we can count on playing cricket in the summer.

See what I mean.

10.45am So we were meant to get underway at 10.45am, but obviously this isn't going to happen. There's more chance of a nuclear-free world than getting any play here at the Grange. But we have some parachutists landing on the ground - I presume they're part of the entertainment and not part of a foreign coup to overthrow the country - and plumes of orange smoke drift across the ground. More news when we get it.

10.40am We have news: it's still raining, and a little harder too. Super bagpipes, though. There's a thought, however vain, that it might clear up at 1.00pm for a brief while. So it's not a complete washout just yet.

10.30am The rain's falling I'm afraid, and more covers are being dragged onto the pitch. This is not good news at all - the clouds are heavy and dark, and it looks thoroughly miserable.

 Catch more commentators misery here.

Fringe Benefits

The two largest Fringe Festivals in the entire solar system are to have a major group hug, with opportunities for junkets and drinking sessions meaningful cultural exchanges for politicians and administrators, visiting each others festivals.

Edinburgh has the largest Fringe Festival and Adelaide, the second largest. The Fringe Festival in Adelaide is the largest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere. Adelaide also has the largest parade in the Southern Hemisphere, with the Christmas Pageant.

In my previous life, I acted in the Edinburgh Fringe when I was at University, doing Brecht, Shakespeare, Review and the fairly confronting The Hard Man. My mum made the straight jacket for that one. Wow, who would have thought I had a cultural side?