Poppy

A wild windy night and following day. But here is a record that the sun did shine briefly at 12:33 in Edinburgh as we ate toast and homemade humus from our homegrown- in Italy - chickpeas. This is T’s lovely dog enjoying the sun while on the QT for a clandestine handout.

Later we walked over to the Botanics- me in full wet gear rig. But the gardens were closed and the evening light show cancelled due to the wind. The shop was, however, open and I persuaded myself I needed a new set of secateurs for the coming year. I also got to feel the action of the amazing Japanese secateurs made of military grade steel that are on display in a locked box.

The charity shops yielded up some nice finds and books.

I’ve always enjoyed shopping on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. As the sun set a single nacreous cloud appeared shimmering like a translucent deep sea jellyfish above the shops.

As we walked back the wind was gusting hard. The pilot next door said the approach into Edinburgh was one of the trickiest he’s had. One flight was diverted to Manchester. On the ground the variability and suddenness of gusts was marked.

I saw this tweet from Pope Francis today. With all my reservations it seemed an important thing to say and it put into words things that I have struggled to express in simple language:

‘We are close to our brothers and sisters who suffer due to war: let us think of Palestine, Israel, Ukraine. Let us also recall those suffering from poverty, hunger, and slavery. May God, who took on a human heart, make our hearts more humane.’