best part of the day: a week of hell

30th & 31st March

It doesn't look like hell, it looks like he is smiling. And isn't that a comma on his head? What is he on about?
Okay, a week past Sunday, the 24th March, after coming in from a long day out walking and taking photos, I was sat in front of the computer, cold and probably slightly slumped (bad posture), when I sneezed. It didn't feel terrible at the time but there was a definite frisson in my lower back. I should probably stretch and foam roller that out I thought and went back to slumping in front of the photos I'd taken. Things deteriorated. Next day and it took about 10 agonising minutes to very slowly roll out of bed. If I made any sudden movements I was rewarded with a spasm of electric pain emanating from the lower back. It took a long time to straighten up and take steps. Everything was done gingerly and with extreme caution. I had to cancel work. I thought it might be a day or 2 before I could cycle or bend over 100 times at work doing stuff you have to do in the world of painting and decorating. However it was a week before I felt on the mend and still have trouble and flexibility issues which are slow to leave the scene of the crime. I am returning to work tomorrow but might start back cautiously. It felt like a window into the world of old age, a flash forward to being old and infirm. Me no likey. Not at all.

Update: that was all written down a while ago and I have been busy with work and life and unable to update this till now. The back thing lingers (though is much improved) and has slunk into a previous aggravation of sciatica in glute and down leg with some echoes in lower back. Cycling is feasible as is jogging but walking can irritate it. But is better than sitting in a chair in bad posture for an hour or 2 at a time. It has been confirmed: getting old is a shitshow. But the alternative is no alternative. So treasure your good health and do everything in your power to keep it in place. It has taken a fortnight before I have sneezed again with impunity. And could be another month before this situation has fully resolved. I suspect it is related to the cold and damp as the previous sciatica issue was certainly Winter related. When I walk after getting out a chair I feel Presedent Biden stiff. Like a Sony robot-walk where you place and lift feet parallel to the ground rather than roll from heel through toe.

Anyway I was walking (to the Botanics) down MacDonald Road (on Sat 30th March) past the firestation where this unit was selling pizza. Pretty sure they couldn't do that without permission; in front of, and even blocking, a couple of the doors of the station. Is this a side hussle? Is that a real wood-fired pizza oven in a fire engine? Too many questions and not enough answers. And there was a queue forming. Including someone from an ambulance. This is getting too weird. I was in a hurry to catch what little sun was shining so didn't stop to enquire. I wondered if their telephone ordering service maybe includes three 9s.

Remarkably for March the sun was still shining when I got to the Botanics. I took a turn round the rock garden since Andrew had reported a comma in the South East corner there. Almost immediately one flew up from where it had been sunning itself. Thanks Andrew! Not only that, but it spooked another which then got into a spiralling battle. And a peacock flew over at the same time. Given how few butterflies appeared in March this was enough to set my heart aflutter. I made sure to keep an eye on the commas which returned to sunbathing on the gravel and grass nearby. Although a bit frisky they were also not fully warmed up and sat nicely for photos. One was in better condition that the other. (The peacock had disappeared over the horizon.)

comma number 1

in flight commas

comma number 2

robin with a sore eye

Feeling the place might be overflowing with butterflies I went for a wander. While there were birds and squirrels there was not a superabundance of butterflies. In fact total number outside the rock garden: zero. As I searched, Mary phoned and let me know she was arriving and I told her to go to the rock garden and I would see her there in 7 mins.

When I got there she was in the right area but hadn't yet seen either of the commas. In a short while we found the number 1 comma and spent a little while with it. If people went past (it was Saturday and there was a regular stream of the great unwashed filtering past) it would take off and do a circuit or 2 before landing in much the same spot. Which is a really great attribute of a comma. They (mostly) don't just up and fly off to the other side of the gardens. On one occasion it circled us a couple of times as if checking us out. Mary and I both instantly did what we learned last September with the red admirals in the cemetery. Sometimes if you hold out a hand in sunshine a butterfly will alight on it. Very first attempt and the comma landed on my hand. Four tiny footprints, the lightest of touches but it travels instantly to your heart. Such a compliment, the trust of another creature to land on an outstretched hand. Possibly just a nicely warm platform but you can easily mistake it for a gesture of friendship or approval.

I can no longer photo anything as close as my hand (with the long lens) so had to rely on Mary taking photos. It then took off and did another swirl before landing on my head.

this year's must have accessory

Always best to use a left hand for a butterfly perch as it leaves the right hand free to operate the camera. Mary forgot this rule and had to work her camera with her left hand - no easy fix. A few of the passing public stopped to enjoy the spectacle.

After all that excitement the rest of the day paled by comparison. This was one of several easter eggs the garden planted as a kids egg hunt. I had been meaning to visit the Kazhak Pear tree which does a spectacular blossom around now. Sure enough it was covered in white flowers and attracting bees.

And there are always squirrels about the place.

We went home via Warriston.

more flies than you could shake a stick at

S - u - n - d - a - y

With a decent forecast looming we caught a tram to Balgreen. The plan was start at Saughton and after a circuit of the park, head up the WoL then back down to the Botanics and home. The gardens are planted really well with all sorts of plants attractive to butterflies and birds. We only saw one small tort but hoped that meant we were saving our luck for other riverside treats.

great tit by the river

We bumped in Vicky who I had met in Warriston where we stalked the kestrel together. A lovely soul who enjoys searching out wildlife and being on her own. She pointed us upstream to a large bush of ivy or similar evergreen plant which is good for butterflies. And to where she had seen a kingfisher. The kingfisher stayed largely absent but there was a long-tailed tit collecting lichen for its nest. Also that recommendation about the large evergreen shrub came in useful later but not this trip. As we came back downstream we passed her, sat at the riverside with a couple of mallards in audience like they were all sharing lunch together.

LTT

We must have gone round the gardens again
as this peacock was on the bergenia making a colourful picture.

We joked that these daffs looked like a dogs head out the car window at speed.

fritillary

Back down the river and I was disappointed these goosander pics were sub-optimal

heron with matching background grafitti

collared dove

Slightly better goosander pics this time. They are difficult to photo well especially the drakes as they are so contrasting and the bird's eye can disappear into the green-black head.

This dipper was right at Belford bridge and going through an intense preening ritual. Which can make still photos look weird. We weren't far away but he stood in the same spot for ages.

Nice to catch up with the kingie just upstream of the gallery bridge. He is used to passing traffic and so much more tame than the usual kingfishers which do not enjoy human proximity. He was a wee bit hacked off with us though and spent a few minutes hiding in the branches on the opposite bank before coming out to play. (Before flying off downstream.)

We went to the modern art gallery cafe. BAD idea. They seemed to have some students (can't have been all three of them's first day?) serving there and they couldn't have been worse. First they took an age to serve the people ahead. Thankfully a short queue as the service was slow as fuck. When Mary paid it came to £25. I asked for the price of the pot of tea as I knew the 2 traybakes were £4 each which meant £17 for a pot of tea. Ahh, we had been sold a caddy of tea. £17 was deducted. And £5 was added. All in all I don't mind paying over the odds if it is good quality food and drink but if the service is slow and a shambles I would highly recommend elsewhere instead. We left joking about Mary's new tea caddy and vowed never to return.

At the bottom of the gallery steps we found a comma. There was a gothy couple nearby looking gloomily into the water as if they were either breaking up or maybe someone had died. I was going to excuse me brushing past them with cheery banter about important butterflies but they looked like they were ejoying their misery too much, so I just snuck past and acted up for Mary's camera. She was not going to be squeezing past the chuckle brothers.

look! an idiot!

Mary and I have both independently googled why the fuck the Dean Village always has a million instagrammers around the 2 bridges that span the WoL. They often look like they don't know why they are there themselves. No cafe, no restaurant, no Harry Potter memorial. Neither of us can understand this modern trend. I mean it is a nice place for a walk and has some quaint buildings, but the hanging gardens of Babylon it is not. We thought it might be a connection to Outlander (some gash on pay TV)(which I have never seen but I hear does for 1743 Scotland what Downton Abbey did for 1912 England and is possibly enjoyed more, the further away you live from Scotland) or something Harry Potter related, but it seems to have grown into the cult it has just because people keep posting online photos from a couple of positions that probably make the place look olde worlde to Americans and other tourists. It wasn't like this ten years ago: small crowds of camera-phone weilding zombies looking like they are waiting for their tour guide to return and take them down the riverside walk to the next fascinating destination. And the thing about the cup in Hygea's hand is that it is not absolutely full. Etc.