What a beautiful day! I think we may have reached a high of 1°, but it was cloudless, sunny and no wind.

So I took Archie for a walk down town. Because the sun is SO LOW at this time of year, it makes a big difference between the sunny side and the shaded side of the street - it must be an instant 10°!

So we hurried up the Lawnmarket into the sunshine of the Castle Esplanade. It was mobbed. Then down to the Grassmarket, where Archie did the obligatory pose on the bench in front of the Castle. Two American chaps came by and exclaimed, ‘Aw shucks - that’s the cutest thing I’ve seen all day!’ (They might not have said ‘Aw shucks’…)

They asked if they could take the same photo, but when the first one lined it up, he hadn’t included the castle! I guided his arm up. He thanked me.

We then staggered up the Vennel Steps, with a large crowd taking photos of the castle in sunshine. I hope they’ve all got software that removes unwanted blobs in photos…

We had a coffee in Costa, before heading home. (7,172 steps) JR took Archie out later, but it’s really getting TOO COLD to go out by that time.