Swan upping - or downing!

Another wet morning today, fortunately I didn't have any reason to go out in it.
It dried off at lunchtime though and we went for a walk at Leith along the Water of Leith from South Fort St.
We started off along the footpath above the cycle path and were taken aback rather quickly when we saw a large number of rats around, in amongst the trees just over the wall. We decided to walk further down and walk along the river instead. The water level has risen a lot after the recent rains. There were plenty of mallards around and gulls of course. The swans were posing, see extra!
We walked down to Commercial Street and had a sandwich lunch in Relish. Colin had soup too. We both ended up bringing half of our enormous sandwiches home! We continued on and over the swing bridge. It's good to know it's at last going to be renovated. It'll be so good when the tram mess is finally gone too.
We walked along past the government offices at Victoria Quay and back to the river via North Leith Churchyard. I learned recently that when old gravestones (17th 18th century) show an hourglass vertically with the sand at the bottom it means the person had lived a long life. If it is horizontal it means that they died younger than expected.
The brambles along the river are magnificent, there's going to be a huge harvest this year.
Back home I did some more Cursillo admin then took up a pair of trousers, what an exciting life! We didn't have bridge this evening so I took the chance to have an early bath. Nice to relax.
Josie's first day at nursery went well. She didn't sleep much though, hopefully she will tonight. Her mum will need a good night as school starts tomorrow. Isobel is going into P2 and Eilidh to P5..... how did that happen? I still forget that school holidays and terms don't really affect me any longer, it's ingrained I think.