Wednesday Walk

The forecast was blue sky and sunshine. Such a contrast from the weekend's torrential rain. Met a friend to wander round Portmore Loch - not far from Edinburgh, just in the top corner of the Scottish Borders.

The point of the walk - I always prefer a reason - was to try and take some interesting photos while enjoying the almost longest day sunshine. Rain forecast again tomorrow and the next few days, so I wanted to make the most of it. Portmore has a wee dam with an overflow that made a funny face at me

The loch is run as a fishery and  there are a number of stages for anglers to get nearer the tame fish. My mate went for a look.

The wind got up a little later on but first thing it was quite still and we were able to reflect on the still water - sorry, hard to resist

At the top end of the loch in the field there's an railway wagon rusting and rotting away. The main use now seems to be to provide passing snappers with an expanse of colourful rust metalwork. A secondary use is for target practice for budding deer killers to zero in their rifles. Clouds for bullseyes?

Further up the field the view back is of the loch and the Pentlands.

Returning to the loch we had to wander down an industrial forest firebrake which looked  a little better in B&W

Finally into some natural woodland that had a friendly face staring at us - you need to look carefully.

Had to take the car, so no pedalling - again.

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Reunion

An old friend organised an office reunion yesterday. (My stint '71-78). Not exactly looking forward to it as I thought, correctly as it turned out, that I wouldn't be able to put names to all the faces. Turned out to be quite a good night despite the mild embarrassment. Got into town early and walked out from Dean village up the Water of Leith to Costorphine.  I had a shot in mind but I got lost in the dead-ends of Rothesay Mews and missed it altogether. C'est la vie. The rest of the walk below: 

No pedalling, but quite happy.