View allAll Photos Tagged virusmask
Closer zoom from previous pic of Project Coffee, peering in the windows at night as masked barrista and customer sort out another yummy coffee while trying to be as careful as possible. Sigh, remember when something like ordering a nice coffee was straightforward? How much more awkward even the simple treats in life have become, but then what else can we do until things are better...
Apologies for this being a bit rough, it was a spur of the moment handheld shot from the opposite side of the road as I was walking home from work
Even Batman is reminding people to wear their damned masks! Street art spotted by the side of the Union Canal
Maked pedestrians waiting to cross on a very misty day (not unusual in Edinburgh as the haar rolls right in off the great Firth of Forth)
Phone zombies are everywhere. Annoying even at the best of time when they are too busy looking at the phone to pay attention to where they are walking, during Covid when we need to keep distance it's even more annoying!
Ian Rankin, complete with Batman themed virus mask, kindly swung by after closing time to sign a huge stack of A Song For Dark Times, the latest, bestselling Rebus novel, for us.
Just days after snow and ice the Scottish weather flipped to bright sunlight and the temperatures starting to move up from freezing to something not exactly warm, but much better than we had before! It was essentially an early spring day - mild temperatures and bright light, and people, with not much else to do during lockdown, made the most of it to go out walking alongside the Union Canal (including me and my camera, which also enjoys a good walk)
Lady pausing to take a photograph along the Union Canal on a beautiful autumn evening, while I sneakily took a photograph of her taking a photo. I don't know why, but there's something irresistiable to me about nabbing a quick street photo of someone else taking a photo.
Out for a stroll on a day off, at the top of Middle Meadow Walk I saw an old friend had returned - the pop-up music stall. I had my first browse for some vinyl since before the Lockdown way back in early March. And yes, it was so damned good! I find the act of browsing market stalls and second hand racks in Indy music stores to be almost as pleasurable as listening to the music itself, and it has been a simple pleasure far too long denied through Lockdown. Didn't even know he had returned, pure luck I chose that route for my walk that day.
Quick zoom in on the cafe window where you can see a barrista inside taking care of someone's order as he approached the mandatory closing time under new Covid restrictions (cafes have to close at 6pm here at the moment, so as dusk and rain both fell this was the last few moments before closing)
A few more people watching snaps as people enjoyed a spring day promenading by the Union Canal in the lovely sunlight (make the most of it, sunny weather never lasts long in Scotland!)
We all need a hug from time to time, and these days we all need them even more (and with Covid quite often we can't hug... sigh)
Using the ticket machine at the tram stop - even here you can see Covid's effect as the machine opposite the couple (facing the camera) is deactivated to avoid passengers being too close together.
Masked and social distancing in a well spaced out queue waiting to pick up coffee on Middle Meadow Walk. Normally on a nice day most of these folks would have gone inside and then taken a seat by the windows or on the outdoor seating area, but now nobody can go in, order at the door, wait, take the coffee away with you. The "new normal" as we keep hearing.
With Covid restrictions people have to wait patiently in socially distanced queues outside now, where once they would just have walked right in to order fast food.
Customers waiting outside the computer shop in Bruntsfield. As with the few other shops open durnig Lockdown, the way we use them now is very different, with people waiting outside (2 metres apart, preferably), then they explain what they need to staff without going inside, pay by contactless at the door.
To use a phrase I imagine we're all getting very tired of, this is "the new normal"
Zooming in for a people watching shot as a bunch of folks were waiting for the green man crossing on Princes Street, while I was on the opposite side of the junction. As I zoomed in for a closer pic I noticed one of the young women look over directly, so I think I was spotted!
"Loving you
Isn't the right thing to do
How can I ever change things
That I feel
If I could
Maybe I'd give you my world
How can I
When you won't take it from me?
You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day
You can go your own way
Go your own way" (Fleetwood Mac)
Snapping some random people watching shots on Princes Street, caught this moment with everyone else going one way, and this masked young woman the other, which just appealed to me.
I took a stroll down the Royal Mile at the weekend - height of the tourist season, and the Edinburgh Festival, Fringe and Book Festival have all started, with the Film Fest kicking off this week.
So some return, but it's still in that odd Covid way - the festivals, normally enormous (the biggest arts fests on the planet) are very reduced, audiences socially distanced, the normally hundreds of performers who usually populate the Mile to promote their shows are largely absent. So although there was a good bit of life, especially compared to the last year, it's nothing like before the pandemic. At least they're taking place this year, however reduced, and there's some life in the town again.
Author Amanda Block visiting the Edinburgh Bookshop with advance copies of her upcoming debut The Lost Storyteller, to be published by Hachette this July. The book comes with a hearty endorsement by Jenny Fagan and sounds very intriguing (waiting to borrow the advance copy from colleague once she's read it!). Amanda also signed the ladder, a tradition in the EB, we get our visiting authors to sign the big ladder on the bookshelves, lot of names on there!
You can read more about Amanda's book on her publisher's site here www.hachette.co.uk/titles/amanda-block/the-lost-storytell... (and if you are buying it, try buying from your local Indy bookshop if you can, Jeff Bezos really doesn't need more of your money!)
Even with much lighter traffic during Lockdown, it's still good sense to wait for a safe crossing at major junctions - have noticed some people getting too used to so little traffic and just stepping out without looking (and having some near misses as a result!). Stick to the Green Cross Code! Or Tufty Club if you are old enough...
Stitches tailoring in Bruntsfield had these masks they had made in their window, next to some lovely antique sewing machines, so took a couple of quick snaps - through the window, so please excuse the lack of sharpness and the reflections
Friends spacing themselves out on the bench or standing for socially distanced chat on a freezing but bright day by the canalside.
Many of the shops on Princes Street have queues outside as numbers allowed inside at any one time are being controlled so there is sufficient space for social distancing when shopping and browsing.
Another part of the "new normal", having to wait to go into shops that we would once have strolled into without thinking, amazing what we took for granted before, isn't it? Most people following common sense for this, but I do wonder how it will work when autumn and winter weather rolls in and nobody will want to be standing outside in the cold and wet...