Budding rhododendron

In the main l like not having a routine, and in lockdown it’s all too easy to construct one that leaves no room for any spontaneity – the thing I miss most. So today I moved my walk to the morning and reversed part of the route which meant I visited Pollok Park twice and Maxwell Park in the middle. I noticed the birdsong, including a magpie’s, and a large crowd of raucous ducks on the still partly frozen pond in Maxwell Park. This might be something to do with my ears finally unblocking after 4 plus weeks of no swimming. Or perhaps it is the beginning of spring and so on. Either way it was very welcome.
The blip is one of the rhododendrons in Maxwell Park’s George Forrest Bed. It was created to mark the centenary of Forrest’s first plant hunting expedition to China at the beginning of the last century. This one looks quite exotic, perhaps it is an example of a species he introduced, I couldn’t see any label to check this out.
Not unexpectedly lockdown has been extended at least the middle of Feb, and no doubt beyond that. And Barra and Vatersay are in now in level 4.