A different scale

Today was the only one of this trip for which I’d specifically arranged anything - in this case, visiting our friend Leo in Duddingston. I think I’ve mentioned before the history of her house, in that it was the one in which Charles Edward Stewart me with his commanders before the battle of Prestonpans and I love it. Today, however, was so warm and inviting that we weren’t indoors for long…

Actually the morning and much of the afternoon was quite cloudy, but in temperatures of around 23c we wandered round the Community Garden before climbing a steep grassy hill, scrambling through a neatly-tailored gap in a high wall, and round Dunsappie Loch, where a man was feeding an improbable number of birds - two swans, a fuzzy cygnet, hordes of ducks, a Canada goose … lots anyway. As we walked we talked - we met Leo about 18 years ago on a walking holiday and we’ve never met more than twice a year, so there’s always lots to catch up on.

This visit, just like last year’s, ended with us drinking tea in her tiny, wonderful garden which is the subject of today’s photo. We left at teatime, drove back to the house, made another trip to return a casserole dish to our other son’s house, and came back here too tired to think of eating out and too late to consider cooking…

Solution: a delicious carry-out from Rishi’s, our favourite Indian restaurant five minutes walk from the house. And then collapsing on the sofa, where I still am but feel it’s actually bedtime. Better go …