DPP Day 1: O Christmas Leith

Friends and family who patiently read this blog and watch for monthly updates, I first thought that this year's December Photo Project would be a terrific opportuity to show you some facets of everyday life in Britain. We live in Edinburgh. The castle is beautiful; the Christmas market is beautiful; the Christmas decorations are wonderful; the tourist pubs are splendid; all this is well and good, but life here is more than that. There are days when it rains and days when we don't leave the flat. Many of the pubs we visit are chosen for proximity to home, availability of wifi, price of drinks, and (sometimes) price of food.

Such an endeavour may not get far (I may succumb to the elegance of the castle and the excitement of the Christmas market, or I may simply run out of energy with respect to finding relevant places to photograph), but here I present a first, if slightly dull, snapshot of "real life" in Edinburgh. In a perfect world where we lived a tourist life, this would be a photo of Edinburgh Castle and the beautiful lights decorating the old part of town and the Christmas market. Instead, because this is real life, I present Leith: a sometimes shady neighbourhood, with a slightly bedraggled Christmas tree of its own, but with wonderful shops and amazing bus links. Glamorous it is not, but functional and comfortable it is to great degree.

Merry Christmas from the foot of Leith Walk.