'FAT WOMAN ON BIKE - HIDE!'

Finished teaching 10 am this morning, and got straight out on the Duchess. I haven't worked out how to carry my DSLR safely on the bike yet, so there are only some rubbishy aye-phone pictures to choose from today - which is a pity because it was one of those days...

...peculiar to this piece of the planet,
when larks rose on long thin strings of singing
and the air shifted with the shimmer of actual angels.
Greenness entered the body. The grasses
shivered with presences, and sunlight
stayed like a halo on hair and heather and hills... *

I didn't see any larks, but I was escorted down the cycle track to Lochwinnoch by an encouraging flock of greenfinches, always a few feet ahead of me. Once there, it has to be said, I consumed a coffee and a chocolate biscuit, which probably cancelled out the calories lost in the bike ride. Sat in the sun watching kids learning to canoe. They don't realise how sound carries across water, 'Ahm gang backwards!' 'How do you turn the f***ing thing roon?' 'Am mar the only wan whos bum disnae fit in the boat?'

Returned to make the best of the glorious weather by clearing out the broad bean bed, preparing a bed for biennials, planting them out and then and savaging a Spirea Salicfolia. The last task was tough. It was no longer a shrub but had become a thicket large enough to hide a herd of elephants. Sadly, the cut back will make it flourish even more next year - think it is time to dig it out. I may need to hire some muscle.

GOOD THINGS:
Glorious weather
Time for myself
My cycling wet gear has arrived - no more fine weather cycling for me!

EXERCISE:

9.5 miles on the bike
3hours gardening
zzz
*Alastair Wilson