Why did the heron cross the road?

Well yes - to get to the other side, of course. But really ... The moment I saw this heron was the highlight of today. The rest of the time passed busily but without any surprises. There are never any surprises these days. I mixed sourdough and put it to rise; I did my Pilates class; I did a washing and hung it out, more in faith than anything else; I did some preparation for tomorrow's poetry workshop. We had some lunch, and I went on devouring Shuggie Bain. And then, because we might as well be the owners of a large and energetic dog, we went out.

We'd just left the car, in Benmore Gardens overflow car park (no, the other wasn't full, but it seemed ... busier than usual) when Himself noticed something unusual just beyond the fence. A heron was pacing, very slowly, along the side of the A815. Its head would shoot forward, neck outstretched, and the body would then catch up, the neck bending so that the head remained utterly still as the long legs stepped delicately forward - an extraordinary gait. I filmed it for a bit, then stopped. Surely it wasn't going onto the road? It wasn't busy, in the middle of the afternoon, but it's quite a fast stretch and there were cars whizzing past occasionally. 

The heron turned, stopped. And then I swear it looked both ways, quite intently, before setting off to march like a determined old lady on thin legs to the far side as we stood transfixed. The funny thing was, we were the only people paying any attention, though there were dog walkers among the trees on the far side. I took another video as it walked back down the far side of the road. It had made my day.

We peched up the hill and back, and home to a phone call from #1 son before dinner. And I made, to go with the sausages, a dish whose recipe I found in my own writing inside the famous Glasgow Shish Mahal Recipe Book; I don't recall ever making it, but must have thought it looked like A Good Idea some time in the 1970s. Mashed potato with half a red chilli and a teaspoon of grated ginger, mixed with yogurt and browned in a hot oven; it went beautifully with the sausages and I ate far too much ...

And I'm going to be extremely late in bed. Again.