Dog Rose

I wish you could smell the smell I could smell as I took this. Dog rose has one of the most pungent, sweet, heady smells you will ever encounter. It is a smell that takes me right back to childhood, playing in the burn or in dens on the banks of the burn I grew up by. It is the scent of heaven for me. I realised a few years ago that an uninspiring ramp up to a bridge over a main road 100m from my house was in fact scent heaven. Nobody was more surprised by me. You can hear the heavy traffic passing and yet the dog rose scent wins. It is a real wild undergrowth, rarely disturbed.

It was suddenly bitter cold this afternoon and had been raining, which made the colours clean and bright. Daughter and I had gone for a quick cycle to deliver some shopping to a friend.

Had taken a photo of me wearing an official mask for work which was my fall back photo and felt worthy of note but it wasn't a pleasing pic. The mask was surprising good. Had been using a snood in the supermarket but it didn't fit right and realised I was touching my face lots to adjust it, so that's stupid. This one was a good design - stayed on easily and was shaped to my face. The shape of things to come?