Oh, Deer!

I took this blip of a curious roe deer at 5:45 this morning just off Braid Hills Road on a beautiful morning with no cloud and an expanse of blue sky.
To the east, the early sunshine sparkled on the Forth at Portobello and North Berwick and to the north and west a misty Edinburgh was laid out in front of me. A blackbird sang his little heart out from the top of a post where I stood at the gap in the bright yellow gorse which lines the road.
Early morning must be one of the best times in the day to be abroad in the countryside, and I felt I was out of town surrounded by the Hermitage on one side and Mortonhall Golf Course on the other.

The only people I saw as I cycled up there, were two other cyclists who passed as I took the photos. Cyclists on the whole are a friendly lot that give you a nod or a shouted greeting as they pass. Of course there are the the other ones that cycle on the pavements and zip past when you are a pedestrian without any warning, but they are rarely out at 5:30am.

Having swept the patio free of dead leaves only last week, I had to do it again this morning after Arthur managed to provide me with a whole lot more leaves blown off the trees in the Meadows. Now it’s clean enough for me to sit on it and lap up the sunshine......... except the sunshine has now gone. I could walk in the Meadows, but it’s full of people. What I must NOT do is stay put and think of biscuits.......