easterly beasterly

More snow today. Facebook is full of snow photos. Here are mine. More as a record for posterity as we haven't had a big snowy spell since the 2 Winters of 2010 and 2011. I like a bit of snow. Lets you get in touch with your inner child. As long as it doesn't last for weeks and go icy and treacherous to cycle on. Glad I don't have a flight booked to Malaga like Steve. (Sad face one tear emoji.)

Being at a loose end today I thought it would be excellent to run to Dalmeny and get the train home. Unfortunately the trains were unreliable or not running so we decided to cycle to Cramond and do a bit of running, possibly to Dalmeny and back. It would give Mary a chance to assess the cyclepath for a potential cycle to work tomorrow.

Although there was only a light covering that had possibly been salted there were parts that it was safer to get off and walk pushing. Too many stretches like that. We were jealous of Fat Bike owners, whose 4" tyres cruise over such conditions. We cycled slowly to Blackhall. The path from there to DMains deteriorated and made even heavier going of it, and already we were getting cold. Sadly we admitted defeat (bearing in mind the return journey would be into the teeth of it. We cycled to Inverleith Park on the roads - the main ones were clear (except edges) the smaller ones bad. Locked our bikes there and ran 3 laps of the park boundary. With stops for photos of the duckies. I had taken some bread though the ladies of stockeroo keep them well fed from the looks of it. 

This was the cutest snowman in the park.
(Carrot nose and broccol-eyes.)

This mother and child installation was reminiscent of high renaissance sculptures. I was rather saddened to see a group of teenagers had bashed it to bits by our third lap. Honestly.

I was amused by the sledgers going down the slope on the left (south) of the pond, abandoning ship just in time before testing the ice.

I had taken some bread for the gulls. Soon as I got it out there was quite an audience, however they are not as friendly as the Cramond gulls and wait till it's thrown rather than come in for a hug and a stroke. They are equally aerobatic though, and the mallards and swans didn't stand a chance.

Mary got cold before I had finished chatting to the gulls and ran off telling me she would be doing the perimeter and I was welcome to catch her up. It took me another 3 minutes so I headed across the pond (over the walkway that splits the 2 sides) and through the middle of the park hoping to intercept Mary halfway along the South side. On the way I bumped into Michael and Lucy and we chatted about running stuff. Haven't seen (Scottish!) Michael in ages. Lucy had already done her 3 laps.

I probably looked a bit distracted. This was because I was trying to estimate where on the perimeter Mary was likely to have got to. I decided to cut across to the West side and travel in the opposite direction till I met herself. Since I had the only padlock key I could imagine getting into trouble if we ran circles (squares) around each other without meeting. It worked and we did another lap (why is 3 the optimum number?) before cycling home. 

This one obvs isn't bothered that large quantities of bread are frowned upon for feeding the birds. Largely I agree with her, especially at this time of the year. And it was brown she has in the 2 or 3 bags. Again the gulls (plumage changing from Winter to Summer) were getting the lions share and the mallards and swan were lucky to see any crumbs, despite the woman's best intentions. I found it much easier to take photos without trying to toss bread from one hand and operate the camera in the other. The feeding frenzy was like that Hitchcock film, Jaws. (Curve ball, haha!)

These 2 were going for most prominent snowperson and having great fun. We said we would get them a carrot from the other one, next lap, but we couldn't vandalise someone else's work.

Not sure what this is. Spoonbilled snow-thing?

plank walking suspended

How could we have ever promised to rob the carrot from this?

the sun nearly broke through

Hell Water of Leith freezing over.

this was going on, on the other side of St Marks on way home,
nice to see the focus choosing different places to land (see first photo)

Around 7pm I said to Mary the street was looking interesting and I was going round the block for a couple of photos. She came too and brought her camera. It will be interesting to compare results: my camera having a bigger sensor should make for better images in low light situations. I was pleased with the pics. The streets were surprisingly busy. Well, full of folk walking, and hardly any road traffic. Some shops had closed, some were still open.

full moon (cloud obscured)

The new Lidl build at the end of Iona St.

My life is destined to be filled with German Beers. 

(Sad face 2 tears emoji with slow fat runner gif.)

panorama: the deaf can lipread just how ready Mary is to return home

everybody walking and hardly any traffic
it's nearly like a healthy city

good to get back inside and warm
10 mins outside even well wrapped up, and it was pretty chilly.
It should sort the roaming midnight drunks problem right out.