One Parent Family.

We only had the lad working on the kitchen today so progress was a bit slow but, allegedly, the boss will be here tomorrow cracking the whip and maybe even getting his hands dirty. It has now been an entire month of disruption though we have to admit that there were delays to progress entirely due to our own interventions.

I took Merlin up to the old bing, the site of the spoil heap from the days when Roslin had its own colliery. The mountain of debris was removed for road building ballast some twenty years ago, an action that upset many locals as the area had been colonised by a wide variety of wildlife. Although it is now officially a nature reserve, it has never truly recovered.

I had seen some rather attractive toadstools here a few days ago, but it was this cosy little group of shaggy inkcaps that attracted my attention first. They're very common in the area; I remember, years ago, hearing the farm manager telling his small daughter to leave them alone (she was stamping on them) with the words, "Leave some for the fairies." He was obviously not bothered that the livestock might be poisoned by eating them but considered the fertility gained from them breaking down dead plant material worthwhile.


I've just posted yesterday's, "At Breakfast."