A day in the life of!

I had an appointment at the doctor’s surgery - first appointment of the day - so was up early (for me).  Instead of walking up the hill along the road, I like to take the path by the river, climbing the steps from the riverside to the park and then through to the Health Centre.  Generally I’m going that way later in the day so in the morning the sun was behind me, and I was seeing the views in literally quite a different light!   Looking up river as I walked along Minniebank as this stretch of the river is called, Fotheringham Bridge was well in the light while the fishing platform was in total shadow.  The yellow ragwort gave this view a nice splash of colour. 

Looking back to Tweed Bridge the sun was catching the water below the cauld -  the weir -

 

 

and the wildflowers and river reflections were beautiful.

  I could have spent much longer dilly-dallying along here even on the way back but…. things to do , people to see, places to be!  Still I am lucky to have this walk almost on my doorstep so I’ll be back!

First stop on the way home was at this lovely house where Jill lives, for a cup of tea and a blether before I headed off again!             Where next? 

Well, Norma and I were off to Edinburgh for some fishy feet treatment!!!  It was the second time I had had my feet nibbled by garra rufa fish, but a first for Norma!  She quite enjoyed it!  The treatment salon was in a former shop on a busy main road, so there were plenty of folk walking - and cars, vans, and taxis driving - past  Faces would appear at the window peering in to watch the fish at our feet, and occupants of the vehicles on the street watched too as they were waiting for the traffic lights to change a little further up the road. Probably thought we were mad!  Maybe we were!  It’s very relaxing though, and afterwards you feel quite refreshed, like walking on air!

On the way into the city Norma had been telling me about an exhibition on at the Botanic Gardens.  She had seen a snippet on TV about these lifesize models of several endangered species that had been decorated by various artists, and were on display to advertise the plight of these creatures and to raise money to help save them in the wild.  Neither of us had to rush home so I suggested we drive over to take a look at them… which we did!  Several years ago decorated cows were to be found everywhere – I remember seeing one in Salzburg advertising the Sound of Music tour, and we had one in Peebles too at some stage. 

However these were elephants, tigers, apes, crocodiles and exotic birds, and were pretty amazing! The elephants were all green and fuzzy – like Action Man’s hair – and it was fairly impossible to take photos without hoards of children wanting to climb on them and ride on their backs.   These two were real little posers!

This was one of the apes, though not all were so plain.  The rope had been covered in strips of coloured cotton woven round it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This was the detail of the feet on the ape, above left.  I rather liked the humour! 

Then there were tigers…

 with children… and without!

 

and crocodiles…

 

 

 

…not too many children climbing on these….  

 

 

This is Norma with one of the exotic birds….

and here’s another decorated with tiny shiny tiles.

They were all quite fantastic .

I hope they sell well and raise lots of money.  It’s sad to think of these animals and birds disappearing…. and we can help save them!

Talk again soon.