Here we go again – Day 13

Today we went for a walk with our friend Kay. Kay didn't want to go on one of our mammoth walks nobody wants to come with us on our mammoth walks so Ann said we'd walk to her house and then we'd go for a walk to Inverleith Park together. So that is what we did.

To get to Kay's house we walked on the 'Roseburn to Craigleith' cycle path. Actually, they're not called cycle paths any more. They're called 'shared pathways', though the cyclists don't seem to realise that. The cyclists always want a bigger share! They go whizzing past us really fast. Sunday's are particularly bad 'cos it's like the whole of Edinburgh go out to play on their bikes. Ann thinks it should be mandatory for cyclists to have a bell on their bike and to use it if they're overtaking a pedestrian but hey ho what does she know? Anyway the result of all this was that I had to stay on my lead for the first 4 miles of my walk.

The minute I got to Inverleith Park I got let off my lead and went zooming around like a mad collie. And then I did something really naughty....................... Do you want to know what I did?...................... There's a wooden walkway that goes across the pond but there was a barrier stopping people from using it (probably because it would be very slippy during all the snow & ice we've had recently) but barriers mean nothing to me. I just crawled underneath it and went for a little wander along the walkway. And then I decided to jump into the pond for a swim. And then two big angry swans spotted me and started swimming towards me, so I thought I'd better get out of the pond 'cos I was obviously having a very nice swim in their territory. The trouble with that plan was.................... I couldn't get out of the pond because I'd pretty much dived off a wooden walkway and there was no 'bank' for me to push myself up from. I started to get quite scared because the two angry swans were swimming towards me pretty quickly and they didn't look happy. Ann was shouting at me to swim to her but I didn't really understand what she wanted me to do so I swam through some fencing (which was in the pond) into another area of the pond (the swans couldn't fit through). Then I made my way to Ann. Unfortunately when I reached Ann there was a fence between us so she had to lean over and lift me out. That made her very, very wet so she was not happy with me. Especially as she had to walk home wearing wet trousers and wet gloves. #lifewithacollieisnoteasy

After all that trauma, we wandered down to the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh to see what was happening there. Now that takeaway coffee shops can only serve coffee from a 'hatch' there were loads of queues in the street. So, people like Ann (who doesn't buy takeaway coffee) has to walk past loads of people who do. How safe is that??? We did, however, have a stroll around an outdoor food market and that all seemed very safe and socially distanced.

Oh dear. Life in COVID times........................ It doesn't seem to be getting any easier does it???

Left Kay at Stockbridge and walked home.

Total miles walked – more than 8.