Friday November 9

So the plan is to visit Swanston village.
The google map here at this link should show the location. It is across the bridge over the bypass, to the Swanston village car park. The bridge is accessible from Oxgangs Road. 
I will be at Stills at 1.30pm for those who are travelling with me, and expect to get to Swanston for 2pm.
My mobile is: 07774 477 058 or email: kbrame@blueyonder.co.uk if you need to get in touch.

The village itself is absurdly pretty, and has historical links with Robert Louis Stevenson, whose 'Picturesque Notes' to Edinburgh makes for entertaining reading, especially his descriptions of the downright meteorological purgatory of Edinburgh weather.
I hope it won't be purgatory, but that's all in the timing. According to the chart, and the forecasts, the cold front should pass around mid-dayish, and that can leave us with mixed sunshine and showers, and varied clouds with fresh cool temperatures.
So thinking about our loose theme for the course, tomorrow we will be in the border area of weather fronts, which can be a visually interesting place to be.
We are also on the city boundary, with urban environment abruptly changing to a 'rural' one, albeit mixed with pylons.
And we are operating in the boundary between light and dark, and some photographers make a habit of shooting during this dusk, or gloaming, period. http://scotlandinthegloaming.blogspot.co.uk/
I would like to spend a little time walking through the village and up into the lower slopes of the Pentlands. The shape of the land is interesting and varied, giving good views of the city and we can have a look at how the shape of the land compares with the contour features on a map. The red lines on the map are called contours and indicate lines of equal height. If the lines are closely spaced, the slope is steep, and if they form a small circle, a ring contour, this means a summit or high point. So a ring contour next to steep slope can be an excellent viewpoint.
It would be good to come back down to the bridge over the bypass before it gets completely dark to see the moving river of light created by the headlights and tail-lights of the traffic, with the dying light of the sun in the west, and outline of the Pentland hills...Tripods would be good - I'll bring a couple of spares.
See you tomorrow - wrap up warm!

Contour features on a map can help us see the shape of the land before we get there.