Lockdown week 4 - Friday

Our newspaper contained a poster today, so I stuck it in the window together with my mum's 100ish-year-old teddy.

Then I decided he looked a little defeated by life, so I substituted this one, though I feel he (sorry, Daughter 2 - she) looks somewhat discouraged also. As are we all.

Today's walk was up the hill again, though along a different one of the many paths. On the way, we passed that gate, now chained firmly up - a progression from the plastic ties and then the rope - and sporting a notice:

So as the chap said the other day, we're allowed to walk on the course at the moment. The rationale for chaining up the gates from one part to the other - there's a path that's a right of way up the hill in the middle - isn't very clear. I don't, however, think that people should bring dogs, because of the poo factor. Not all dog owners keep a strict eye on what their dogs are doing, 100 yards away.

However, we didn't want to go on the course today, but instead proceeded on the path up the hill, admiring the signs of spring as we did so.

Can you see Arthur's Seat in the misty distance?

Up we went, past the back of the Zoo, with this antelope having a snack.

We turned right today, further uphill into the wood. Look at that root system.

There are various places called "Rest and Be Thankful" in Scotland - possibly in England too?? Anyway, they tend to signify the top of a hill, as here.

We came to Corstorphine Tower, which isn't as ancient as it looks, having been built in 1871 as a memorial to Sir Walter Scott.

There was a bench there, so we sat on it for a while and a couple came along whom I vaguely know. They discussed the fact that the door came from the old Tollbooth Jail. I didn't know this. When I tried to find evidence on the internet, all I came across was the information that when the jail was demolished, Sir Walter "managed to salvage one of the jail's door for his Abbotsford home". So - maybe this is another one; or maybe these people were confused.

The trouble with going up hills is that you then have to go down them again, which can eventually make one's knees wobble.

We rounded the hill,

admiring these roots but thinking that the trees didn't look awfully stable,

looked down at the golf courses far below, and the view over the sea to Fife,

scrambled up again - hills being like that -

and wended our way down the other side and home.

(As I wrote that, I wondered if the past tense of "wend" was really "wended". Turns out that it is, but it used to be "went". Quite interesting.)

Three and a bit miles today, but they were hilly ones. (All right, nearly 4, Mr L.)