Canal Capstans

There are funny goings on today in our patch.
This morning as I roamed foot loose and fancy free early before the murk had broken, I found a lone policeman guarding a taped off patch of Bruntsfield Links beside a dark unlit path. It was very dark.
I didn't cross to him and ask why.

Then on the way home, still in the gloom, I discovered another lone policeman guarding a large taped off piece of ground at the corner of Marchmont Road.
I didn't cross to ask him why.

Five hours later he is still there and so maybe is the other one. Just a lone policeman and no-one else and a blue and white tape stretched round a group of trees.
I didn't cross to ask him why.

Why didn't I cross to ask him why? I don't know why, but I wish I had.

Hopefully some one more enquiring than me but no less curious will give me my answer. It's all the more unsettling as I have to cross the Meadows tonight on my way home from my bookgroup.
You won't be able to see my feet on the pedals for dust. Should I be murdered, his Lordship who will be fast asleep and won't hear any phone calls is confident that he will hear about it in the morning. So that's comforting.

The tree surgeons are working overtime in the Meadows this week felling at least 4 large trees bordering the paths.
I still find it unsettling to see a huge tree, probably a hundred years old being disfigured with the removal of its branches and its trunk standing rudely stark before the final cut which brings it crashing down.

I watched the biggest one being felled this morning.There was no dignity or respect as this huge giant which has guarded the path all my life, sheltered birds and shielded the old infirmary windows from an urban landscape, giving the patients the illusion of countryside, had its limbs cut off before it fell to earth. Very sad.

The other funny thing is that his Lordship is sulking because, while I was out, I forgot to bring him a cake as requested. It was not the forgetting he explained that he was angry about but the fact that I obviously hadn't thought about him in the two hours I was gone. Mea Culpa x 3. I must tie a knot in my handkie the next time.