Idling the Day Away

Today ventured further from home only for the second time this year when I visited a school friend. Her home is probably about 3 miles away, a slightly shorter distance than that of the school friend I visited in March. Then I took a nearly empty tram for the journey, today I took an empty bus. You can imagine my excitement at being abroad in foreign territory.

Across from her house is Craiglockhart Pond , part of the nature reserve there and right by the roadside a swan sat serenely on her nest while around her were eider ducks and coots with an uncountable number of tiny fluffy coot chicks.

It is a cold, wet, cheerless day, and to be out and about is a penance. I’m just glad I’m not a swan. They don’t get to have coffee and cake indoors in the warmth with chat and laughter in the equation.

As I write, there has just been a hail shower but as if to compensate, through the general miasma of gloom, the pink of the cheery trees stretching across my vision is startling in its contrast.