Rusty Bolt

It wasn't easy to lever myself out of bed at an early hour this morning. His Lordship was up and out to machine land and I was tempted to turn over and go back to sleep, but I remembered how good I would feel after I had panted my way up to Frogston Road on my bike and the sleeping city held me in its thrall.

The roads seemed slightly quieter than usual even at this early hour because of the school holidays.
I think the roe deer that startled me as it shot out of a field on Braid Hills Road into my path owed it's safety to the lack of traffic as it ran along the middle of the road for about 200 yds in front to my bicycle before it found a gap in the fence to escape through.
I kept expecting a car to speed towards it and I could only hope that the driver would notice two little upright ears appearing over the brow of the hill. Any car coming up behind me I could have flagged down and hopefully they would have seen the deer's little white bottom in front of me.

With the roe deer safely off the road , I was free to look for a blip and found this rusty bolt on a disused gate in the railings along the road.

Later, a visit to the storage facility which we intend to use for a short time after we move, yielded yet more cardboard boxes.
His Lordship's study resembles a storage facility itself, filled as it is with cartons of his books. Most of my books as you may recall have gone to other homes which leaves me with only my art books to box up. But I have a cupboard full of 50 years worth of photo albums which I have to pack and store.

In the process of preparing to post this blip. I decided to dash to the shops to buy some buttons for a cardigan I was knitting. For the first time in about a year, I didn't take my camera, thinking I had my blip for today, only to discover on my route the assembled *Royal Company of Archers in full regalia and their attendant kilted pipe band exiting from Archer's hall at Boroughloch to the Meadows for a shoot. That's another lesson learned - take a camera at all times less you live to regret a missed opportunistic blip.

*The Company are the Queen's bodyguard in Scotland and look very medieval in their green uniforms with eagle feathers in their bonnets and carrying their bows and quivers of arrows- not unlike Robin Hood, I suspect. They are all men of course and represent the great and the good of Scotland and are elected by the members.