A bit of red letter day?

Maybe I’ve chosen quite a good time to start keeping a Blip diary.

Early in the morning, before I’d even gone to sleep, I received a wedding invitation from my best friend from school, which was lovely to get. He lives in Australia now, and he’s getting married in Sydney in March. We haven’t kept in close contact for many years now, but I still think warmly of him, and when we do message there's no hurt feelings and it’s like no time has passed. It’d be a long way to go, and I’m not sure how it’d fit into my life, but I’m considering it.

The morning started off sunny, so I got myself up and out of bed quickly enough that I could sit in the garden with my coffee and breakfast, and soak in that life-affirming gift of warm sunshine. It helped that the temperature was well into the double digits, so I didn’t even need many layers. I cherish these moments, especially at this time of year, when I know that the strength of the Sun is continuing to fade rapidly. In a few weeks, even a fabulously bright morning will give almost no noticeable warmth. But it would still be beautiful. I also especially cherish those first few such mornings in spring with strong, warm sunshine.

I bravely hung out my laundry to dry in the morning, but I brought it in around 1, in defeat, with the clothes still damp, scared by the dark clouds gathering from the south-west. I was heading out for the afternoon and didn’t want to return drenched laundry.

My main purpose was to go to the library, because I fancied some of the calm and peace and quiet that I can find there. Today’s photo shows a wooden carving of an owl – it’s probably meant to be a tawny owl – on a pile of books. It’d never noticed it before, but it fits well.

On the way into town, I stopped by the old boating lake on the South Inch, to message my friend Adam for a little. He's down with his family in Kent, meeting his first ever nibling. I, as an uncle to nine already, was keen to know what he was thinking and feeling.

I noticed for the first time that the old boating lake was starting to refill with water. Back when I was a kid you could hire a rowing boat for 20 minutes and have a little float around, but maybe 15 years ago it was turned into a pond for birds and wildlife. It’s maybe 75 metres by 25 metres, although I haven’t measured it.

The council, sadly, have not kept on top of things this year - the pond is fed by the nearby Craigie Burn, but the pipe had supposedly become blocked, and the pond has been allowed to slowly drain and evaporate away over the course of the spring and early summer. Fine for the birds, who had hopefully finished breeding and could relocate; not so fine for the fish and insects and other aquatic creatures relying on the pond to, well, remain a pond. Instead, the bottom of the pond has been bone dry for many months. Let’s hope the life returns.

Soon after I got to the library, I received a very sweet and brave voice message from a wonderful person who I met at the Glen Prosen hostel at the weekend, and whose company I had found thrilling. She asked if I’d like to get on date with her. Yes, I would! Such a thing is not a normal turn of events in my life. We don’t have specific plans yet, but we may as well meet as soon as possible. Let’s see… It's exciting!

Inspired by Wednesday’s post, when the library shut I cycled to the shop to buy two more tubs of that paint while it’s still in stock (I suspect that that line is about to be discontinued, leaving only the twice-as-expensive brand name), and then popped into Aldi to load up on Lebkuchen and minced pies. Why not!

Nina and I chatted the evening away, while I attempted to mend an old glove. I'm so grateful to have her in my life.