Leafing my mark

I'm not sure where I found the energy today, quite honestly, but I'm quite glad I did.

After fortifying myself with a big bowl of porridge again, and after half an hour of flopping in which I notched up my 100th successful game in a row of Byrdle, I headed out with my rake and went at the leaves for an hour or so.  It's a lot easier raking leaves than it is shovelling mud, put it that way.  I cleared the same section as before, and here I remembered to do a before-and-after.  Then I made my way slowly home, doing a few other sections where the trees overhang the path.  A couple of people even thanked me.  Back home I realised I will probably want a metal rake next time.

After lunch the sun was still out, so hedgetrimmer in hand I went at three of the four trees in the garden.  Doing them once a year is probably the minimum, otherwise they get too big and hairy.  I didn't have the energy to do the fourth tree, for which in any case I need my stepladder, so I tidied up and had a big drink and a rest.

Checking the opening times of the tip in Penicuik, I was surprised to find that it is open seven days a week.  I don't know if that's a new thing or if I've just been living under a rock.  And I had an hour left.  So I took a deep breath, got changed into bike stuff again, unceremoniously crushed and tipped the remains of my breadmaker into my panniers, and cycled to the tip to find the WEEE crate.  I noticed someone had chucked out a Sony 5-disc CD player, and someone else had chucked out an old Toshiba record player and a matching amplifer.  I don't have a turntable, but I wasn't very tempted to take that one.

A quick whizz round the nearby Lidl for bread and milk and then home via the old railway path.  They are resurfacing a long section between Firth viaduct near Dalmore Mill, and Rosewell.  It's been a mixture of hardpacked whindust and hardpacked mud and gravel, but now they're using a material called Flexipave or Ultitrek or something like that.  It's a mixture of bits of rubber and tiny pieces of gravel stuck together.  It feels like a firmer version of that springy playground surface, and is probably very kind to horses' hooves, but I think it's hard to cycle on, like your tyres have gone slightly flat.

I was freezing cold by then so headed home to warm up with hot chocolate and a big plate of pasta.  The top pic is the skew tied-arch bridge over the North Esk, and beyond, Auchendinny Tunnel where the road to Howgate and Leadburn passes overhead.