Something of a quiet time culturally since the festivals packed up and the town lost much of its colour.  To compensate somewhat the weather has perked up, sufficiently indeed for me to sit on my balcony sipping a Campari and soda before lunch.

While there I noticed wasps buzzing in and out of a little space where my roof meets the wall so I guess there's a nest in my loft.  It's probably been there at least a year because I remember thinking last autumn that there were an awful lot of wasps flying about.  They don't seem to be as interested in my window boxes this year.  They are flying higher so I didn't feel threatened as I sipped.

When we had a wasps' nest in the roof at Barbansais the fireman who came to clear it donned what looked like a chemical warfare suit before he climbed into the loft so I'm in no hurry to get close to the nest.  I'll look for a professional when I come back from my saxy week on Mull.

I set out to see the Picasso/Lee Miller exhibition which has been running in the Portrait Gallery since April.  (It's my habit to get around to these things in their final days.)  When I got to the gallery I discovered that the two fire engines that had lumbered past me on Leith Walk lights a flashing and bells a ringing had been heading to the same exhibition.

The building had been cleared pending the blaze being doused or the false alarm being declared so I couldn't get in.  I went off to catch the Liotard (excellent pretty pictures) and the Kantor/Demarco (six hours of weird videos that I had time only to glance at) leaving the Picasso to another day.  But that day never came so I've missed it.

To ensure that I did not miss the NT Live screening of The Beaux Stratagem, scheduled for a date on which a DORA committee meeting was planned, I booked for the encore showing in Kirkcaldy.  Annoyingly the committee meeting was cancelled due to the report to be discussed not being ready.   I suppose I could have taken a punt on that happening but anyway off I went to Kirkcaldy a few days later where there was a miserably small audience for the event.  I'd be surprised if they covered the cost of keeping the lights on with the receipts.

The good burgers of the lang toun missed a treat.   The Telegraph reviewed it in May and said it needed more zing and last night there seemed to me to be plenty of zing.