Day Fourteen: Street scene

The streets of Edinburgh are crowded. The festival has brought out street performers and artists sit on the steps of The National Gallery with home made signs proclaiming their ability to produce a portrait or a caricature, with samples of their work on boards. One has no demonstration work, only a sign offering pencil sketches. A small group is gathered around as a man, sitting next to her on the step, with a bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, chats to her while she works. Her father passes by, not recognising her. There has been a long hiatus, a time of shocks and divisions, the spats in…