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David Warnes

@davidjwarnes.bsky.social
394 followers 167 following 743 posts

Retired priest (Scottish Episcopal Church) & former History teacher. Author (Russia:a modern history, UTP 1984 & Chronicle of the Russian Tsars, Thames & Hudson 1999). Carer.

PostsRepliesMedia
David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Any chance @stephenjenkinson.bsky.social that the profiteers you have allowed to litter the city with hire bikes could be persuaded to label all of them with the message WHEN YOU PARK THIS DON'T BLOCK A PAVEMENT? A pedestrian can sidle past these, a wheelchair user cannot.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The curse of the VOI bikes strikes again @stephenjenkinson.bsky.social
Hire bikes completely blocking a pavement.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Chuffed to hear my punch needle Rooster is heading to Turkey once the St Martin's Art Exhibition closes. The exhibition is on this week, 12 noon - 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am - 2.30pm on Saturday. Cafe with home bakes. St Martin's Episcopal Church 232 Dalry Road Edinburgh. Admission is free.
Circular punch needle embroidery of a rooster.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
@stephenjenkinson.bsky.social For the second time in a fortnight pavements at this corner have been blocked by the bikes hired out under the Council initiative to inconsiderate & in some cases reckless cyclists. How was my wife supposed to get past in her wheelchair? Answer - take to the road.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Tree of the Day in Edinburgh’s Roseburn Park. @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social
Tree bark with varied colours & textures.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
A happy & blessed Easter to all.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Does Edinburgh City Council have advance warning of the Second Coming? Or perhaps they couldn’t fit Previous on the sign.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
And Trump’s plan is…?
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
T S Eliot just helped me reattach the back of a bookcase.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Rain overnight in central Edinburgh & snow on the Pentlands. Polwarth Parish Church & the spire of St Martin’s Episcopal in the middle distance.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Wonderful needlework by our multi-talented Rector showing the Church of the Good Shepherd, Murrayfield.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
I thought @stephenjenkinson.bsky.social that @edinburghcouncil.bsky.social recommends that pavements should be 2m wide. A loading bay for the new hotel on the west side of Devon Place seems to be allowing a pavement that won't comply. If I'm right, why? I ask as the husband of a wheelchair user.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Something we needed like a hole in the head.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Not a prophetic insight as it turns out.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
This hasn’t aged well. Will Farage now be so keen to have a photo opp with Trump at Davos?
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
One of several seen in Roseburn Park just now.
A heron standing on a wall with bushes in the background.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Dear cyclists. My gripe is with the City Council not with you. This is an example of what passes for pavement in West Edinburgh. It’s just across the road from an excellent cycle path.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
I see Lake Valdai is in the news or rather fake news. It’s lovely, as I discovered 25 years ago.
The town of Valdai seen in the distance across Lake Valdai.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
A minor challenge of city life.
Empty milk bottles & a big pot with a notice asking the milkman to put the eggs under the pot so the fix can’t get at them.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
I managed to find a pic on my hard drive.
Bare prison cell with barred windows and a display board with a b&w photograph of Niemöller and text too small to read.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
RIP Frank Gehry
La Cinematheque Francaise, Bercy, Paris. A modernist building.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
I finished reading this tonight. A fascinating and persuasive account of Vermeer's life and work. Graham-Dixon argues that the great majority of his paintings have a religious significance and were originally intended as aids to devotion.
Photo of a book cover. The title is Vermeer: a life lost and found and the author is Andrew Graham-Dixon.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Irony alert!
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
An excellent read for those who know or think they know the Netherlands.
Book cover: Title: Orange Sky, Rising Water. Author: Nicholas Walton.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Greatly enjoying this - a portrait of the Netherlands built up over a series of walks. Sharply observant & fascinating in its detail.
Book cover. Orange Sky & Rising Water by Nicholas Walton.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Passing Donaldson's this morning, we fell into conversation with a young couple from Frankfurt-am-Main who were photographing the building. His grandfather had been a POW in the building & was grateful for the treatment he received for a serious eye injury sustained in combat.
Donaldson's College, Edinburgh in bright sunshine against a dark sky.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
The fuchsia overhanging the churchyard wall is in splendid bloom.
Close up of bright red Fuchsia blossom.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
They picked the wrong letterbox!
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
A coal tit is a welcome visitor to the bird feeder.
Coal Tit perched on bird feeder.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
What goes round, comes round. I recall feeling hope in October 1992 when, through the window of a rainswept bus, I saw that the statue of Dzerzhinsky outside the KGB HQ in Moscow had been replaced…
Plinth for statue topped by a cross.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Many of us boomers were issued with ID cards even though WW2 had been over for several years when we were born.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
A section of tarmac at the pedestrian crossing at the east end of Eglinton Crescent. Navigating this in a wheelchair ain’t easy . Happy to give you a spin in my wife’s wheelchair @stephenjenkinson.bsky.social but, as Mae West said in a different context: “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”
Uneven tarmac, pothole & inspection cover
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Netflix is offering us Hamlet without the introspection & indecisiveness. Think I’ll pass on this one.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
A Guardian story that should be required reading for those appointing the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
West Port Community Garden, discovered when I went to Tonsorium for a badly-needed haircut.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
And now. Trump’s clearly into blinging the place up.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
That Oval Office fireplace in February…
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
It seems like a good day to open this Ukrainian Chardonnay & drink the healths of President Zelenskyy & other European leaders as they head to Washington.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
The orchid is flowering again. A rare houseplant success for me.
Orchid in flower in a white pot.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Me too.
Pocket New Testament. Cover reads “EIIR CORONATION JUNE 1953”
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Repentant dinners? I have eaten some disappointing restaurant meals in my time, but they’ve never expressed their contrition.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
They have highly intelligent & dexterous dogs in west Edinburgh.
Sign on gate reads “Dogs please close the gate”
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
The lunar surface? Solidified lava from the last eruption of Arthur’s Seat? No, it’s a section of pavement on the south side of Haymarket Terrace. Any chance of fixing it @stephenjenkinson.bsky.social ? There seems to be limitless cash when it comes to satisfying the cycling lobby.
A pitted and neglected section of pavement in west Edinburgh.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Impeccable timing by Hypericum Hidcote, aka St John’s Wort. Happy Feast of the birth of St John the Baptist.
Two open yellow blooms of Hypericum Hidcote.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
And the rose garden in Saughton Park is at its best.
Rose beds & low hedges in a walled garden
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
The Balgreen Tunnel project is off to a great start.
Mural of a fox in a pedestrian underpass in Balgreen.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Heading for a haircut in the West Bow & enjoying Portsburgh Square in the sunshine.
Edinburgh Castle against a blue sky with 19th century flats in the foreground.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
It was a great morning for a walk/wheel along the Corstorphine Railway Path.
Path along a former railway lines converted. Flowering shrubs on either side. Sunny weather. Cloudless blue sky.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
A squirrel has found the bird feeder.
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David Warnes @davidjwarnes.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
When Heinz Tesar’s Stations of the Cross in the Donau City Kirche, Vienna, were vandalised (in English) the church decided to leave the daubed message in place. This is Station 9.
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