more urbaneering

Since we both had Wednesday off the coach said we should do a slightly longer variation of a previous route that does some of the 7 Hills (4 of the hills) then finishes with a cafe break in the Botanics. The weather was supposed to be sunny and stay sunny; but we only caught the tail end of that and it didn't. By midday the cloud had arrived and settled for the day.

halo over the first summit, A's Seat

descended off the summit and ran round the Queen's Drive

Jackdaws were playing on the wind

We then chose a rather odd route through the Grange where there was a better display of Maples and shrubs going orange and red than later at the Botanics.

This looked a lot like mistletoe, parasitic on a Rowan. Mary had been trying to kiss me the other day under a snowberry or cloudberry or something: I discouraged her saying that's not mistletoe. Strangely she ran on when I pointed out this one. 

Blackford

Hermitage

The Hermitage is full of glorious trees. I was up there the other week biking along the riverside trail and thought I really must return and go kick some leaves under the trees and across the hillside above. This was not quite that, but again made me think I must come back. We chatted about whether it is the trees sending out vibes that make you feel so good when running among them. (The evidence for this being the photos never really capture the joy felt when running near large trees.) No conclusions were reached but quite a lot of bogus chat expanded and evaporated.

onward to Craiglockhart
there was some bulldozer churn but why would you photograph that?

and a fat squirrel up a tree

traditional stop at the Craiglockhart PO 

where fizzy drinks and a flapjack were had

this tells you quite a lot about the speed of the trams

Corstorphine was ablaze with Autumn

Mary tried to show me the route she had accidentally taken off here in the 7 Hills following 2 lads who seemed to know what they were doing. However we ended up missing the exact path. This is why I always take a different route after the tower in that race. I must do a proper recce but we are rarely in that area of town.

photo Mary

Then through the Dean Village and on to the Botanics. Cake and Earl Grey tea x 2 plus a 500ml bottle of water £12.30. Now that would be quite expensive if the cake was good. If you are going to leave the cake out for more than 24hrs you should really put it in tupperware. Dry. Won't be doing that again. Afterwards it was too cold to hang about so we marched to the gates (no running inside the Botanics) and ran the last mile or 2 home. On the way there was a grumpy cold looking heron in the ivy above the Water of Leith. Good run. 17 midweek miles. (Didn't make clubbo.)

Mary took a pic of this exact same shot with the TZ70 and it was 

every bit as good as the TZ100 which is about twice the price.