Unrequited Bargain

I struck a bargain with Daughter #2: if she could give me a lift in her car to Tiso’s shop in Leith this morning in order to swop a too big jumper, I would stand her coffee and a cake in their restaurant. It wasn’t until she had fulfilled her part of the bargain that I discovered the café had shut down 3 years ago. Because we had the car and I can’t walk very far, there was a mutual decision to ditch finding somewhere convenient for coffee and I was returned to the the Dower House one sadly disappointed Lady.

My tame friend Charlie the crow, one of two siblings, came to visit me again later this morning as I was doing a recce of the patio. He hopped over to me looking at me fearlessly with his beady eyes while one of his parents stood in the grass a little way off making sure nothing bad happened to him. Eventually like a lot of human teenagers, he felt tired, resting on top of the cotoneaster till he regained enough energy to hop away.