Tony's dahlias

At the birthday party yesterday my mother's 'next door' neighbour Tony told us about his dahlias, and invited us down to his and Keith's house to inspect them this morning.

My goodness, what a display greeted us just a short walk down the river! Tony spends hours in his garden (often while Keith is fishing), and his dedication to his plants is very obvious. It was warm enough to sit outside with tea and cake (from yesterday's parish show) and admire all Tony's hard work.

We returned to Edinburgh by train this evening. It was a long journey due to engineering work on the East Coast line: lift in the car to Hexham; local train east to Newcastle; LNER train west (back past my mother's house) to Carlisle; and then north and east again to Waverley. At least, however, we weren't on the later 'train' from Newcastle - the dreaded the 'bus replacement service'.

Exercise today: walking (12,028 steps).