The Cruellest Month

Not really the cruellest month. Just a bit cold at times.  Here we are making up Edinburgh runs. For this one the plan was to run up the Water of Leith and back by the canal for about 13 miles. It was the Easter weekend and the sun was out.

Statue of Hestia at St Bernard's Well - fittingly she is the goddess of health and well-being and is seen here holding out a lovely cabbage.

This was my second butterfly of the year - a peacock this time! Peter declared it a bit raggedy.

We had a coffee and cake stop 7 miles in, at the Water of Leith Centre. It was a bit confusing. The lady asked me if I wanted instant coffee or a cafetiere? I said was it a cafetiere for two? She said no it's in a plastic cup. "Just give me the coffee already and stop with the funny stuff" I didn't growl at her.

Those cakes look huge but they were really titchy little things. I ate most of them because Peter had packed himself with muesli just before we left the house. He has a capacity for running on a full tummy, and famously, back in the day, had a bowl of soup at Emma Barclay's mum's house just before running a pb at the Kinross Half  Marathon, with no ill-effects. Also he says what I do 'isn't really running'.

Anyway, life took on an extra dimension after the sugar and caffeine hit and morale soared. The skies were blue, the flowers were spectacular.

We continued down the canal instead of coming off at Gilmore Place and were impressed with the murals and a set of paintings by children from a local school. I declared it the best ever art exhibition because it was outdoors and there was nobody about and nobody breathing down your neck and nobody talking pants. Apart from me, and I'm used to that. I don't mind it.

Is it just me, or is the house scared of the swan?

You kind of have to hope that 'Oma' falls in the canal and gets eaten by some of the charming and characterful animals depicted above.

Actually some of it was pretty psychedelic. I had to question whether I was having some kind of Easter-driven religious experience and to be honest I'm still not sure.

Eventually we came down and found ourselves in central Edinburgh.

We were not the only revellers, drunk with the Easter sunshine and the Glories of Spring. On one of the park-benches there sat a cheerful looking gentleman of the streets with a sun-weathered face, many, many plastic bags of possessions, three quarters of his way through a full bottle of whisky. I gave him a grin and received a toothless one in return. A little later he found his voice and began to sing. It was inspiring! Better than any saccharine flash-mob - his voice rose up and filled all the gardens with a rich, incomprehensible baritone. I swear I was tempted to go back, and sit down beside him, and join in.

We rounded off the run with a quick look at the heather along Waterloo Place to see if there were any butterflies. There were indeed two Tortoiseshells chasing each other round and round in the air, leaving Buchanan in a state of agitated frustration.

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For Easter Monday, Peter had managed to book us both tickets in the Botanics. The temperatures had plummeted but it was a beautiful day. I had several layers and a duvet jacket on but couldn't take much more than a couple of hours.

!!!

A chaffincher, having a wee song.

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And then last weekend we went around the airport run and then through Cammo. It was still cool and so very little butterfly action - not too much in the way of birds either - but the paths were nice under foot.

We saw this one tortoiseshell, quivering away with the cold. I scared it away as the flash went off on my camera. 

I didn't have any trouble from the bees but something DID bite me and I've had a big horrible red lump on the back of my leg ever since. I reckon maybe a horse fly. Nick and Peter got bitten by something that gave them lumps the weekend before.

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So there we pretty much have it.

This was another day during the week. I went a run round the perimeter of the park and started to feel like I was being watched.

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In Covid news; people were just allowed out of town starting yesterday. I stayed in town today. My hope was that if everyone else was leaving town, I'd get it to myself - and it was much much quieter. It was cool and sunny and bright.

I took my lightest, cheapest camera, so just took note of where I saw butterflies for Peter later. They were moving too fast and I didn't want to stop. I only stopped once, in fact, in Niddrie, to take in this astonishing garden scene. 

Like garden ornaments much?

Okay. Es tarde. Tengo que limpia la cocina ahora.

Adios.

The March of Time

Where does the time go? A year goes by and we're still playing a game of "Pandemic". I woke up the other day and thought to myself, "If you had a friend who would say anything to get attention, and as soon as one drama was over they moved on to the next one, if they constantly criticised and blamed people, would I want them for a friend? No I wouldn't. But that's what the News does and I listen to it every night. Then another strange window into the world is the world of "Social Media" and the opinions that sweep across that landscape. I try not to involve myself because it never gets you anywhere, just arguing with people who want a fight. I wouldn't mind a fight, but an honest old fashioned one with fists out. That's a lie. I've never had a fist fight in my life. Men are terrible at the moment anyway. If you're a man, you should have a word with yourself. 

The other day I ran up to the Castle again, ostensibly to try to take back my rather soft Strava CR on the way. I didn't get my CR back and I didn't enjoy the view. It was an awful lot like last March. I hate Edinburgh Castle and the forecourt and the views over Edinburgh. My eyes need to see Spanish things. It's a health condition. LOOK IT UP!!!

A friend of mine from school - Inga - said the other day that one of her children called Chaffinches "A chaffincher". Ever since then I've been singing to myself "I am the Chaffincher" Iggy Pop Style.

Peter and I went a nice run to South Queensferry the other week there. We took the car to Cramond just to see if it still worked and I was very relieved that it did. The brakes hadn't jammed on. The battery was still bright. It's having a dull pandemic too. The sun was shining bright, although it was breezy.

I saw my first and only butterfly this year.

We discovered a new way to go through the Dalmeny Estate. Well Peter found it on a map and suggested it and I didn't veto it. Quite often I veto any kind of exploration because it always ends up wading through weeds up to your armpits. See exhibit A below.

Exhibit A - damn I look mad in this picture.

Anyway, we went up a road that we normally just breeze past. There was a sign saying that the road was going to be closed from March 20th - June 20th and we just slipped through the day before. It was refreshing to be on a road we'd never seen before.

lockdown haircuts

It has been so sunny and spring-like. It was disappointing to cover some of the same ground yesterday and find it grey and cold and windy. We ran up the cycle path and dodged the people and the bikes. It was irritating. We were tired.

I think this is a barn owl.

I have no idea what this is.

We both got a dose of vaccine last week. I had no.2 Pfizer and Peter had no.1 Astra-Zeneca. I was more worried about him because he reacts to stuff some-times and there are allergies in the family - and he really tempts fate a lot. I needn't have worried though, he was fine. My arm was sore but not as sore as with the first one, and I think we were both a bit tired yesterday but when you put together the cold and the grey skies and being trapped in the city and working, it's hard to know how much of the pie you would apportion to having your genetic code monkeyed with, and how much is just old age and disenchantment. Talking of which, I better go and do the dishes, and think about tea, because it's Sunday night.