after the storm pt 2

 

26-01-25 Back to 50 shades of grey and dull January weather. Maybe the forecast promised more or maybe we just braved the shitty weather hoping it may improve. Anyway, we wandered up the WoL through Inverleith Park and back via the Botanics. None of it was particularly memorable or worth noting so let's just hurry through and leave it to the archive.

great tit in full song

dipper

goosander

goosanders (f & m)

how glum does nosferatu here look?

I was surprised Mary conceded to a diversion to Inverleith Park. I'd heard there were birds in the Sundial Garden worth a look. Might have been fieldfares or redwings. They were nowhere to be seen on this occasion. Just a handful of reluctant long-tailed tits who kept hopping behind branches, out of reach. The sundials, with their gloomy reminders of the brevity of our existence are always worth a look and a laugh.

LTT

best place for a badger box?

I realised we had arrived at the Botanics and forgotten to check Inverleith pond for ducks. Oh well. Probably a bit overcrowded given it was Sunday. Meanwhile we checked out Campbell's Magnolia near the cafe which was in bud but not out just yet. Must try and catch it in flower when it does.

the pond near the cafe was iced over

yup, did all of that

nice skyline in front of the Pentlands

While there were no kingfishers at the Chinese pond
there was this dunnock full of the joys of life. 😁

this dirty nosed squirrel looked like a koala from certain angles
but not this angle

Sad to record that the Botanics lost 15 trees to the storm including the highest in the gardens, the 29m tall Cedrus deodora. Another 27 were badly damaged, and over 100 panes of glass from the glasshouses were lost.

new sign required 😥

Ken who we saw at the duck pond

We bumped into Ken at the duck pond. Just as we arrived a couple of female kingfishers flew up and off into the surrounding undergrowth. They had been perched nearby but the light was so poor I don't think Ken was getting much in the way of decent photos. They refused to return and pose. So we went round the other side to see if we could scare them back towards Ken. We could not. We went home.

male goosander hanging out with the moorhens and mallards

magpie with a limp

unhappy sight

this female bullfinch refused to pose,
it kind of summed up the day.

5miles, 2.5hrs

after the storm

 

Saturday 25th Jan and the forecast was pretty good. We opted for a longer run round Holyrood which was fairly soggy following Storm Éowyn. We had lain low on Friday (avoiding airborne debris) and it was nice to get out in the sun and stretch our legs.

all photos taken with DJI Pocket 1

love this photo of trees on the golf course looking towards the Pentlands

there was a dusting of snow but it was the amount of rain
that had the most impact on our running

still very breezy on the tops

Pentlands a bit snowy but nothing like they were in the first half of Jan.

then over to Whinny Hill

down to St Margaret's loch

then back up the boundary path

We have been chasing a strava section that Jim H set a while back. However it has become such a mud-fest that we will have to wait a few weeks for it to dry out. Jim was generous enough to confirm the particulars of the start and finish points (and some of the middle parts as well) as it is 15minutes long (from St Margaret's car park to Nether Hill) and if you don't stick to within a certain distance of the exact path then strava doesn't acknowledge your attempt. Consequently it hasn't had too many successful speedy attempts and is within reach with a bit of improved fitness. A good stick and carrot challenge to measure fitness. I need to take off another 35 seconds or so to win it from Jim.

Talking of improving fitness, it is entirely down to Mary that I am enjoying a bit of a surge in running mojo these days. Left to my own devices as I have been the last few years (while Mary catalogued a series of running injuries) I will keep a bit of residual running fitness but it is more just trotting between photography projects. I seem to lack motivation to do the necessary training to record decent times at races. Which means I don't bother with races or events and subsequently don't bother to train hard for anything. It is a downward spiral of disinclination and I forget I actually get a massive boost from running hard and really pushing myself physically.

Judging by the body-positives (not allowed to fat-shame people by calling them morbidly obese these days) I see every day; struggling to walk normally down the street, I am not alone in my reluctance to exercise regularly. It has become quite the pandemic and one that will shorten the lives of far more people than Covid ever did and yet, due to political correctness, society is not allowed to flag it up. Ironic that I lost my competitive mojo during the Lockdown when all events were cancelled and there were limitations on how much (and where) we could exercise. 

And then Mary suffered a number of injuries that stopped her running. She'd fix one thing and another would flare up. Her mid-fifties were a series of difficulties she had to overcome and she spent very few months able to do more than just walk, swim and cycle for exercise. However recently she devised a routine of movement exercises and pre-run warm-ups that are allowing her to train nearly as hard as ten years ago and she is greatly enjoying a return to form. It did not happen overnight and involved a lot of determination and careful experimentation but has resulted in a pheonix-like return to running from what had seemed career-ending difficulties.

very muddy section round the perimeter of the park

Although much of this was conducted without a request being issued to myself to join in, once she was able to operate with a chatting fool running alongside, I got the invite. It made me appreciate that Mary is the real runner in our household and I am just the accomplice. That I lack the direction to chase that fitness on my own; too easily distracted by pretty things next to the running track. Although if someone is cracking the whip, I am okay about going along and doing as I am told. Well, up to a point. Mary has signed up for Alloa Half and Edinburgh Marathon. I am going nowhere near those but look forward to chasing the Holyrood Parkrun times I was doing up until recently. Or maybe signing up for a smaller trail race or cross country. Nothing that I have already done previously in order to avoid the comparison with my younger, fitter self. I don't need to know just exactly how bad things have got. So will not be going along to any road races for a bit.

snow clouds passing over

sunshine over the Pentlands

We seemed to have done a couple of laps of the park but in a strange order and most of it off-road. It is not an easy place to get up to double figures due to all the gradient, but on a sunny day, much nicer than running out of town and back on roads. Did one of those more recently and the last 5 miles (of 15) were really awful. This was all perfectly pleasant, while being a decent workout and we returned for lunch in a positive frame of mind.

10miles, 2hrs+