Different

Trying to figure out why the two sycamores in front of the cottage are at different stages of growth - the one on the left has its leaves fully out but the one on the right still has a good proportion of its buds unopened or only just opening.

We were very pleased to watch a newly hatched family of goslings being ushered down to the water (1st extra) - they followed their parents without hesitation and were then totally submerged by the first tiny wavelet that came in. Bobbed up like corks, of course. And the eider ladies have started brooding their eggs in discreet corners - second extra is one under one of the bushes at the front of the lawn, third extra is under a bush up by the hermit's cell. The male eiders just float around in rafts in the south bay, still displaying their apricot chests to each other and sounding like a gathering of Frankie Howerds. Saw first swallows back in residence - hurray!

I hitched a ride back to Hawes Pier with the Maid of the Forth and after ascending the steps to Dalmeny got a bus back to Edinburgh.