This week's walks

Walks this week have included a quick spin round the Eildons on a misty morning before work, snails at sunset and then a walk from Colinton to Tollcross along the canal and via the very nearly finished Colinton tunnel mural project.  

Three bridges

Scotland hasn't had a Covid 19 death in over a month, schools have been back a week and there is only ever the odd sporadic case in the Borders now.  On the flip side Melrose (nice wee attractive market town) was strewn with disposable masks today and people returning at speed from France to try and beat the quarantine deadline blamed the government for forcing them to drive dangerously...!  Our First Minister continuously reminds people that life shouldn't feel like normal at the moment, yet people seem to desperately cling onto their normal, whether that is pub crawls or the annual week in the sun.   

Spotted on my travels (11)

The heather is in full bloom on the Eildons and even on a grey day it is pretty spectacular.  I followed the extensive trail of the dropped sweetie wrapper like some sort of Borders Womble before they turned left and I went right.  I am always seeing oddities on my travels and you'd be surprised how often it is a life sized giraffe!!

Colorado living his best life!

My light shines on

Edinburgh was lit up with beacons of light over the weekend as part of "My light shines on" - the beams were to represent the ghost lights left on in empty theatres and they were placed around the Edinburgh venues which should of been bursting into life with the start of the festival this weekend.  Instead Edinburgh's streets were eerily quiet and we wandered up an empty High Street to the castle esplanade on a beautiful still summers night.  

Personal challenge

Lockdown has seen a rise in the number of walking challenges, I even found myself drawn to some where you got (I mean, bought) a medal to celebrate reaching targets.  Then I reminded myself my aim is to have less "stuff" and I didn't need some random bling.  The benefits of walking an hour a day are well documented both mentally and physically so beginning in May I planned to walk a minimum of ten thousand steps for a hundred days (a million steps).  However I was working about six paces from the kettle and could hit the end of the working day having hardly moved at all.  I know my phone isn't hugely accurate for milage (it underestimates, honest!) but I'd prefer to be able to judge like for like on last year so I leave my stride length as it is.  I can't lie, in the beginning there was a couple of days where I grudged every single step but there is no doubt I feel better for making the effort.  I've seen deer, foxes, owls, literally hundreds of painted stones and wee nooks and crannies in my corner of Scotland I would never of ventured to normally.  I carried on with a walk from East Linton to Hailes Castle today (day 101!)