Wildlife of Weegieland

While walking home from work today, I saw this squirrel sitting on the edge of a rubbish bin, making the most of whatever find it had found. It was one of those moments when I regretted not having my camera with me, so you’ll have to make do with a cameraphone shot.

Then tonight, I was enjoying a wee glass of red wine while watching News24 when I noticed there was a fly in it.

My wine, I mean, not the news.

Anyway, I fished it out (the fly, not the news), and found it was still alive, if no doubt a little intoxicated. I let it rest on my finger and watched, intrigued, as it washed itself and slowly recovered. I took a few photos, most of which were blurred rubbish until I realised that my macro function only works (for some reason) when the camera’s not zoomed in.

It was fascinating to watch its almost cat-like ritual (the fly, not the camera) as it used its legs to clean itself – face, wings, legs, body – until it decided to fly away.

Isn’t nature wonderful?

And rest assured, I chucked the rest of the glass of wine out. A tragic waste… but if I was a Buddhist I am sure I’d get major karma points for my evening’s efforts.

Teeth

It was communion at church tonight, and as usual I spent the subsequent five minutes trying to pick bread out of the really annoying gap I have between two hard-to-reach teeth at the back of my mouth.  I must remember to swallow the bread whole next time.

Or just go back to the Church of Scotland, where communion is once a season.  I am sure my dentist would love me to convert to catholicism.  It would get him heaps more custom.

Long exposure

I was in Edinburgh the other night catching up with some friends and taking some photographs. Edinburgh was in photogenic mood, as it usually is, and surprisingly for the beginning of August it wasn’t too busy and so I didn’t develop my normal “festival rage”.

Something I discovered, thanks to one of my friends, was my camera’s long exposure setting. With the help of his mini-tripod I was able to take both some really crisp, clear night-time shots and some blurry time-delayed ones. Check out the ones I uploaded.

Talking of festival rage, I am bracing myself for a severe dose of it in a week’s time, when I spend five days in Edinburgh for my new job’s induction. No doubt I will blog about why I hate the Edinburgh Festival in due course.

A visit from FORK

As you may have noticed, a FORK volunteer, Mike, visited this blog the other day to say hello. Hopefully I’ll now be able to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Ha’penny Bridge.

I emailed Mike this evening:

Dear Mike

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and offering to help with the mystery.

Do you by any chance know how the story finished? And do you think any of the suggestions are close to the mark?

I think you have a great opportunity to do a bit of profile-raising here. How about a competition for the best suggestion? It’s the sort of thing that could get a lot of local publicity, appealing to people’s sense of fun and imagination, and of course raising awareness of FORK – and ultimately the river. And the winner could get their finish to the story painted on to the house for all to see.

My personal favourite is Greg’s suggestion, but don’t let me prejudice the proceedings!

Best wishes, and happy FORKing.

Simon

However, the email bounced back – seemingly Mike’s inbox is full.

So Mike – if you’re reading this, consider yourself emailed. Although obviously in a slightly more public way than is traditional.