Banknock

Saturday is always a day I look forward to. I have a Zoom call with friends at 10.30am where we put the world to rights over a morning coffee - and with each of us having differing opinions on how to do that, it makes for a fun 40 minutes or so. The fact that we've known each other for over 40 years means that it doesn't get out of hand. But it sets the rest of the day up for whatever lies ahead.

Maybe just as well, for later that morning I received some bad news from other friends of mine. I'll speak to them more fully on Monday when we have our own regular chat.

Saturday's walk didn't take place until later in the evening, and I headed along the Canal (what else?) to Wyndford Lock and then doubled back along the Doup's Burn path at Banknock and then home from there.

It's amazing how green everything has become in just a few short - or maybe long! - weeks. Lot's of birdlife, too, chirruping in the trees, although not so much on the Canal itself .Saw a few mallard drakes and one or two ducks but only one brood of ducklings. I'm hoping the others were just out of sight among the reeds and hadn't all succumbed to predators.