a game of 2 halfs

24th July. Lots happening today! It felt like 2 entirely different activities. The first was a visit on the Lauder bus to meet my niece Amy. She is an incredible showjumper and horsewoman and has recently taken up running. We have been saying for a while that we should go for a run together and today we did. I was collected off the 10am bus (getting to the road end at 11.30am) by my sister Anne which saved me a run up the steep mile to their farm at the top of the hill. Thanks Anne!

I have never seen much of the surrounding coutryside there, except in photos of the girls out riding around the fields. It is really very pleasant. We ran on trails and round field edges at a brisk chatting pace. I wasn't saying much on the up-hills as it was close to my maximum. Pip, Amy's dog came with us. Contrary to what I'd been warned, Pip was well behaved, well, all except for a brief visit to a field of the neighbour's sheep to do a bit of rounding up. Retrieval was prompt.

Amy has done a couple of 10ks and is signed up for the next Edinburgh half marathon this month. She is greatly enjoying the training and I think it is helping with her fitness for horse riding. I was pleased to have got out for a run before she becomes a far better runner than myself and leaves me trailing behind. It also reminded me I really enjoy days out exploring new places to run. It was only looking at the gps output later that I was able to know where we ran. Noticeably there are no big landmarks on the map near there. Large round crop-covered hills. And field edges and paths with rosebay willowherb in flower and yellowhammers singing in the trees.

Up the hill a bit then across and down towards Lauder then back along on an ex-railway cyclepath and back up the hill. Not sure I could find it again on my own. I carried my B camera in my backpack. I was fairly sure if I had no camera we'd come across all sorts of interesting stuff; raptors or hares maybe. I remembered towards the end of the run I had my DJI Pocket handy and took a couple of photos, but by that time we were down off the hills and it was less spectacular scenery.

there may have been some walking on the steepest bits!

past the new foal

Bob, Anne and Amy

When we got back I was admiring Anne's pond. She has a number of fish. Possibly carp? You know the large goldfish types that start as finger sized and grow to shoe size or bigger. She has also planted intelligently round the edges of the pond (was it mint?) and it is that plus I think filters that keeps the water algae-free and clear. Hopefully no more visits from the heron who took some of the larger fish.

around 8miles in under 90mins

After a shower and lunch, Anne gave me a lift back down to the A68 and assured me the bus would stop if I flagged it down rather than return to the official stop along the road a bit. Indeed it did. I disappeared into an audio book for most of the return journey although the day was getting quite sunny and I had the bright idea to get off at the Commie Pool and walk home through Holyrood. I texted Mary who was out doing a constitutional currently chasing a wall butterfly around Calton New Cemetery. Dammit I should have stayed on a couple more stops and got off at Princes Street. However with creaking bones and reluctant legs, I started running again and within about 15 minutes had reached the cemetery below Regents Road. Mary was still chasing the walls which seemed to be going round in circles without ever posing long for photos. 

It is a mixed bag of a place - a rambling, not too neatly kept city centre cemetery on quite a steep rake from top to bottom. With a back drop of the parliament buildings and Holyrood Park. Many of the graves have valerian and ragwort growing around them and this attracts pollinators. Recently the buddleias have come into bloom and it was this that transformed the place. In previous visits we felt it should be better for butterflies than it was - with only occasional butterflies and mostly whites, passing through.

However today we checked the West side with many tombs or graves full of buddleia and butterflies. Suddenly the place was, not heaving with, but quite full of admirals, commas, peacocks and walls as well as the whites. And even a grayling. I was sorry I didn't have my A camera but it was an interesting comparison to have lots of subjects and to capture them with my bridge camera. While some of the results were perfectly fine there was no comparison to the ease of use and quality of image of the G9. It is a bit like going from broadband back to dial up.

can't get shots like this with the G9
without changing lens - so some benefits

female wall

male wall

grayling

there were a couple of commas enjoying the buddleias

this whole (buddleia) section was probably
the best place for butterfly action

for Emma!
(Signs of afternoon drinkers and ne'er-do-wells.)

This pair of walls were considering an engagement. The female did a lot of wing shivering while the male showed enthusiasm for a while then flew off. This made me wonder if the fast wing beating was the female indicating she was not interested. In whites, the rear of the abdomen is raised (by disinterested females) as a knock back. I'm guessing other species have their own sign language. I recently saw a small skipper female flapping her wings as a refusal to a male who landed just behind her. 

Despite the evidence to the contrary of these three photos, the large whites were zooming about looking for mates rather than posing for photos. If you follow them long enough or sit near the buddleias waiting, occasionally you might get lucky. Actually that top one is a small white I think!

as we left I took another scene setting photo
to give an idea of the fairly attractive surroundings

squirrel crossing the road in Regent Terrace
which had been closed due to a protest at the US embassy

So some people had a whine and maybe chant or sing-song at the US embassy. Trump wasn't there. Trump wasn't due to be there. Yes he was in Scotland but maybe 100 miles away. Loads of police were there. The road was closed (Regents Terrace.) I am at a total loss as to what the protestors hoped they might achieve other than get a road closed and stop maybe 30 police doing useful work that afternoon. What was the point of this whining and what was achieved? Apart from forcing Mary and I to take another route to the cemetery.

I am no fan of Trump. I doubt anyone outside America is. But I can't see anything useful in chanting outside a building in which he is not. Would anyone have even told him there were protestors there? I doubt it. Chances are he was never told and would have dismissed it as fake news anyway. And it kinda was fake news. Except for distracting the police officers. Occasionally my life can seems a bit meaningless or misguided; but it is as nothing to those who think a worthwhile afternoon is to chant outside a building in which there is no trace of a dimwit. 

hollyhocks on the way home