Elevenses

Gosh, that cannot have been an easy message to deliver. Not unexpected and hopefully in Scotland it will allow us to continue to manage the worst of this pestilence with grit and endurance. Perversely the figures today were encouraging with a less than 4.5% positivity rate.
This chap/chapess in the blip obligingly stayed put on the dividing fence in the garden flat below us for quite a while this morning. I was hoping to catch the woodpecker but in the absence of bird food he/she/they are keeping their distance. Not sure what this squirrel was chewing.
The extra is our anniversary present to ourselves. Exactly 9 years ago today we were driving through Arthur’s Pass in South Island NZ. Matthew must have taken the original photograph – we met up with him in Blenheim and spent the Christmas holidays together. I think on the 19th December 2011 we overnighted in Franz Josef Glacier (after a long spectacular drive) before driving further south and eventually to Wanaka where we spent 5 idyllic days beside the lake, walking and swimming.
Exchanged greetings with friends from the Western Isles, how I miss those seascapes, landscapes and the smell of peat, pervasive even in downtown Stornoway.