Swan in front of iconic landmark (No 2)

Swam 1km this morning. My swimming hat wasn't on properly, and so it was creeping up the whole time, which was a very strange sensation. And I couldn't (be bothered to) stop and fix it. A bit like, if you had one (I imagine) your toupee slipping off in a breeze, and you couldn't really stop and rearrange it because you'd have to take it off and put it on again properly.

I asked my pal Susan if she'd like to go to a 'bird event' that I wanted (I may have said 'needed') to go today instead of meeting for a coffee. I think she may have imagined something indoors, like a budgie competition, or perhaps something outdoors but exciting, like a falconry display. She said she'd like to, even though she confessed to being terrified of birds.

The 'bird event' I wanted to see and photograph, was the Great Crested Grebes doing their mating dance on Linlithgow Loch. Susan hid her disappointment well.

I remember many decades ago, my Uncle A taking me to Blackford Pond to see them there. I may have yawned a few times... But now, I really want to see them!

Well, partly not very successful. Did see two of them through binoculars away out on the loch. No photos.

I got a few baps in the bakery to lure any swans, and the lady told me they liked brown bread, but I'd read that white bread was all right for the adult swans, ducks and gulls. But there were a few teenage swans there, that I didn't want to feed. They all came up on the grass, and were quite cheeky. Aggressive, even. Susan, sensibly, was away up on the hill.

But this lot kept coming at me and trying to peck the camera. I have several blurry shots of swans' beaks at the lens. They'd surround me, too. I'd be focussing on one, and suddenly the others were right behind me. And there was a bit of hissing, and it certainly wasn't me! I think they were in a really bad mood. Probably because of the cheap baps I brought them.

I got them between me and the palace, which at least was a bit more interesting, and this one suddenly flapped and I staggered back, but they were behind me as well. I made a hasty retreat after this.

It was freezing cold, so after making sure there were no Great Crested Grebes dancing and waiting to be photographed, we went off to the pub, where it was warm and we had a very nice lunch in the pub that Mary Queen of Scots used to frequent, just opposite the Palace.