Clean Break

Not exactly the Sunday that was originally planned. And it was a rather innocuous fall that lead to this shot, but the angle of Mel's leg and ankle, together with the loud crack that accompanied it, as she slipped on mud by the river just down from Hailes Castle was pretty indicative.

We'd passed a house 100 yards or so back, so with Mel sat (and remarkably calm) I ran back to see if there was anyone there. Sadly not, but two walkers appeared who kindly offered their help. Just after getting back to Mel some more people appeared, and tow of us carried her the 100 yards back to the house to assess what to do next.

Our car was parked up at Traprain Law - a couple of our helpers offered to get their car and take us to ours, but not knowing the extent of the injury an ambulance was opted for. Credit where due, after a long phonecall to identify the dead end road we were down, the ambulance arrived in good time, with a brilliant and cheery crew. The paramedic took off the shoe and confirmed a break just above the ankle, so it was into the back of the ambulance. I was looking forward to the ride (having broken things in the past I've surprisingly never been in an ambulance) but was told I wouldn't get straight into the hospital with Mel anyway, so I made brisk progress back the couple of miles to the car, before sitting in A&E for two hours.

Seems they'd forgotten about both of us in the course of our visit, but Mel's break was confirmed as a spiral fracture, and will be in plaster for about 6 weeks. Mel herself is more just annoyed and embarrassed about the whole thing but I'll be making sure she's okay tomorrow. Also means the next 6 weeks driving her to work, then riding to my office from there. AND we're supposed to be having friends round for Chinese New Year next Saturday. AND we're going to Lewis in 8 weeks...

In other news, why is it always the SUVs? And our Big Garden Birdwatch thing (before the ill-fated walk) was, as ever, a bit of a flop - although there was a twiggy Redwing.