working hands

suzos' not mine, bless her she had to dig her car out at work today. i on the other hand (no pun intended) have hands like leather and 'like two hams' as a friend once told me. i was up in gracemount in south edinburgh today digging snow from the paths. a foot deep in places more against the walls with solid ice underfoot. hardest i've worked in ages. after lunch i leaned back against the wall and watched a buzzard stave off a mobbing from several rooks pigeons and gulls, a dip of the tail here a tilt of the wing there, majestic. simple pleasures