Gardens, apples, friends...

Friends R and X lead busy lives, so finding an unexpected space in their diaries has been a treat. We should have seen each other last year, but covid got in the way. So this quick weekend visit has allowed us to catch up a bit.  R and I were at university together.  At nearly 72, he's still enthusiastically working for Edinburgh University, on research projects, albeit part-time.  I can admire this from a distance, but there's no way I'd want to be doing it.
R and X have a large garden, and we spent some time in the morning making a start on picking and storing the apple crop. Later they had a badminton match commitment, and I caught the bus to the Royal Botanic Garden. My ex-husband's niece and her family also live in Edinburgh, so this was an opportunity to spend some time with them too. We had a really lovely walk around the gardens, and a good chat. I'd taken the camera, but it wasn't really the kind of visit for pausing to use  it much.
Later still I got back to R and X's house, R cooked mussels in a delicious sauce and I made an apple crumble. Restful.