alice lyall

@alyall.bsky.social

225 Followers 348 Following

Slow cyclist, serial enthusiast, aspiring harpy. Mostly in Edinburgh. Work: heritage stuff Volunteering: river stuff

Pilate at Fortingall A Latin harsh with Aramaicisms poured from his lips incessantly; it made no sense, for surely he was mad. The glade of birches shamed his rags, in paroxysms he stumbled, toga’d, furred, blear, brittle, grey. They told us he sat here beneath the yew even in downpours; ate dog-scraps. Crows flew from prehistoric stone to stone all day. ‘See him now.’ He crawled to the cattle-trough at dusk, jumbled the water till it sloshed and spilled into the hoof-mush in blue strands, slapped with useless despair each sodden cuff, and washed his hands, and watched his hands, and washed his hands, and watched his hands, and washed his hands.
5 pigeons necks outstretched for the same small pile of crumbs
TrashNothing post offering a grey ottoman but spelt "automan"
Two foil covered chocolate coins one with a sticker celebrating 30 years of Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site
A smiling woman in a t-shirt featuring a potted plant holding a box wth two plants
A still of Hugh Dillon as Joe Dick (still my problematic fave), frontman of fictional punk / rock band Hard Core Logo in the 1996 mockumentary film of the same name.
A view of a low bench on green turf framed by leafless birch branches. Beyond is the sea, low rocky islets and a blue spring sky.
Photo of an outside table and coffees In the sun with a bike and viaduct in the background
An English Bulldog standing next to a hairdresser's chair in a salon. He's looking right at the camera.
Photo of the original Wawa Goose statue. The goose is seen from below and in front, neck stretched upward and wings raised. It's a bit battered and lumpy! Someone has hung blue and white bunting around the plinth.
Photo of a planter full of bright yellow flowers in front of a sandy beach and Wawa Lake. The water is calm and grey-blue. Wooded hills fringe the lake in the distance and the sky is cloudy.
Photo of Inverleith Pond near sunset. Two ducks sit in the foreground and a row of bare trees are silhouetted against the evening sky.
An oddly-shaped pebble painted to look like the side profile of a toothy beast with a white staring eye and pointed teeth. Pebble has been tucked into drystane wall.
Closeup of a bike's drive train / front ring revealing the filth of winter city riding. Also revealing that the owner doesn't like washing the bike when it's cold outside!
A photograph looking downstream along a stretch of urban river in the sunshine. Trees shade the left bank and the river flows away under two stone viaducts. On the right is a walkway along the riverside and a sign over the path saying "Water of Leith Visitor Centre"
Avoiding the gods They have come to scald our blood, to call us out from our bright houses to the twisted shadows under trees. Let us not listen to them. Do not let them in. There beyond the darkened garden, in the obscure forest, the night expends itself in numberless small deaths. That is the way of them, the way of predators. A kind of innocent destruction but destruction nonetheless. Let us abandon them to moulder on their crosses, beat their iron wings; to redeploy their armies and invent new forms of sinning and guilt. Let us remain here, calmly taking bread, and wine, and speech. And in the morning take our limbs to work, and walk behind the swaying, fuming breath of cattle. And let us look for our salvation in the language we have come to teach ourselves. - by Ian Abbot
Three otter cubs standing in shallow river water and facing towards the camera. They are wet and whiskery!
A lumpy and definitely unphallic Victorian stone erection on a plinth. An oval hole a third of the way up used to hold a water tap.
Two swans, some pigeons and some black-headed gulls in winter plumage eating birdseed at the edge of a city park pond. One gull decided to use a swan's back as a perch. The swan didn't mind (or didn't notice).
A photo of a stuffed European badger wearing a green cycling helmet.