Autumn in the City

Yesterday we took a late run up to Blackford Hill, and who should we meet in the carpark but a wee female schnauzer, Bailey, who was just about to set out on her walk. We accompanied Bailey and her mum and the two dogs just had the BEST TIME. I think it’s true - schnauzers play together differently from other dogs with lots of up-on-hind-legs boxing matches. Fun to watch. They ran and ran and frolicked, while we chatted with Bailey’s mum and swapped phone numbers, to arrange other meetings.

Actually, I was reminded of a very good idea - a citronella collar to stop Archie barking. He has been doing well, most of the time. But yesterday afternoon he suddenly barked at a wee toddler who appeared at the gate before I noticed. The poor wee soul (toddler) got such a fright that she ran off, probably traumatised. Mum was most displeased. I just cannot have him doing this. Or barking at the neighbour hanging out the washing. So I’m hoping that the citronella collar is the solution.

Today I went to the Zoo talk. Actually, it was less than fascinating this week. Two shorter talks, and both young ladies kind of gobbled their words, so I found myself wishing I could turn on the subtitles, like I do with Homeland on TV. One talk was on genetics with lots of graphs full of lines and squiggles. Another talk on pouched mammals, but mainly an in-depth character study of the four koalas in the zoo. I enjoyed my wee thermos of coffee.

I took photos of the deliciously ugly Red River Hogs, and spent an inordinate amount of time at the luxurious penguin pool (longest in Europe?) trying to get a photo of one of them ‘dolphin-ing’. Impossible. Couldn’t see the baby chimp, partly because of the extremely grotty windows on the chimp side, and partly because it probably was elsewhere.

Back home to shove a few things in the new slow cooker while JR takes Archie out for a windy romp on the Meadows. Actually, that sounds like I know what I'm doing round a slow cooker (or any kind of cooker). No. I was left with explicit, and fairly simple, instructions.

The city is so lovely in the mornings. The bus wasn't leaving for another five minutes... so the cityscape (five portrait shots stitched together) with a touch of autumn beats the hogs today. Just.