Spring

 

 

 

 

A couple of views from my window first, and these are the daffodils that get flooded each year yet pop up each spring looking as pretty as ever.  That bench is a popular place for sitting to admire the river, though there was no-one there just then!  There has been a succession of people there this afternoon though, with the sun out and there being just the slightest of breezes – and see who’s there now!  They are about 15!  Love’s young dream!  Awwwww!

The first two pics were taken a few days ago but now the plum blossom is coming out in the gardens.  This is my neighbour Heather’s plum tree.  Morag says hers is way behind this one, but hers is more shaded from the sun….

 

…….and this is Heather’s quince bush.  It is looking particularly gorgeous just now.  My pear tree is just about to pop open its buds, but the apple tree is way behind!  I’ll look forward to getting photos of their blossom in due course.

Heather and Anthony were away on a short break to the Lake District last week so I was left in charge of feeding their cat Katie each day.  She’s quite a nervous creature so it was a day or so before she started coming warily to investigate me.   We have met before, but she’s decided she’s not an outdoor cat so we don’t meet often. However she soon got to enjoy having the attention and by the end of the  few days we were good pals, even to the extent that she would come and demand to be tickled around the ears!  That’s my knee she has her paws on!

 

 

 

She’s very beautiful!

Petra, my German friend from the Gaelic class, has recently moved house - flitted, we’d say – to a fabulous little stone farm-cottage not far from Edinburgh.  That’s it to the left of the photo on the right.   I went to visit her last weekend and helped her to put up roller blinds in her living room!   She has done a lot to the cottage which hadn’t been lived in for a while.  Repairs, new this, new that, painting, shelves, she’s one of these folk who start a job and keep at it till it’s done, not like lazybones me, who flits like the proverbial butterfly from one job to another, never finishing any, and usually leaving more of a mess than when I started!  It was lovely to see the cottage , and to be able to sit in the garden drinking tea, the first day this year that it has been pleasant enough to sit outside, watching the chaffinches and bluetits at the bird feeders.  The sun was going down over the Pentland Hills as I left.  I should have had my camera out sooner and got a better picture of the cottage instead of leaving it till evening!

A I write it is another sunny pleasant day and I am outside on my balcony watching the dog walkers and the sun worshippers out on the Green.  Some of the people walking by look up at the balcony, but if I happen to catch their eye, they look away quickly… Wasn’t me!  I wasn’t looking!  Others will smile and I’ll wave to them, which often starts a conversation.  No conversations today!   Well, Shell, my former colleague at the Co-op, just walked by on her way to work so we exchanged a few quick words!  I’ll have to go to the Copie later so we’ll talk more then! 

  The lime trees on the Green have burst their buds and the first signs of new leaves are appearing.   Soon I won’t be able to see the hills to the south of us or the foot-bridge along the Green a bit, but after a long leafless winter it is good to see the trees blooming again. 

Well, I’ve got a lot to catch up with this week as far as the blog goes….more gardening group visits, and a drive to the coast….  As always I’ve taken dozens of photos!

I’ll write about them next time.

Talk again soon.