expect the unexpected

Today Joanna and I enjoyed a walk at Eskrigg Nature Reserve near Lockerbie. The weather was quite chilly and damp and potentially miserable but we didn't admit that to each other until the end of the walk ...I suspected that Joanna might have been put off a bit by the cold, since her gloves had gone mysteriously missing and her hands were frozen, but she said she wouldn't have worn them anyway because it would be too hard to take photos... Anyway, neither of us wanted to look like a wimp by complaining about the cold, so we just kept quiet and carried on, even when all the hides were disappointingly shut "due to misuse/ vandalism" and there was not a single red squirrel to be seen.

Joanna took us along a sheltered path which ran along the edge of the reserve (see extra) and as we were out of the wind and rain, we began to warm up and notice all the beauty around us - a plethora of fungi, bright holly berries, mossy tree trunks, small birds and this frog :-)

We walked about 3 miles and finished up having our picnic in a shelter near the car park - a flask of tea and a lovely fruity cake which Joanna had made specially vegan and gluten free and using apples from our garden.

Even better..although Joanna had resigned herself to losing the gloves, they weren't lost at all. They had been on her head (inside her hat!) the whole time :-)