Oranges

Thursday 17 December, 2020

A great day and it started with the sun shining. Walked to Church for a Mass and Exposition. Met an old friend and had a legal breakfast together overlooking the mud flats of Wormit bay on the Tay. She is an artist and pointed out the colours I could not see. Obviously she is attuned to them and when illustrated I noticed the purples and pinks, the blues and the remarkable light on the Tay and the lands of Perthshire. Before us the mud flats of low tide. They too are full of colour. A mass of birds feeding and waders enjoying searching for sustenance. I felt I had had my eyes opened to another dimension.

My friend was worried as her husband has two retired polo ponies and they had escaped. She searched and found one but left before the second was recaptured. Sadly she sent an email when she got home to say it had had a heart attack and died as it ran the fields. She was awaiting the kennels to pick the body up. The pony was 31 years old and had had a good life. I told her to hand it over to St Francis. Her husband was particularly upset as he had ridden the pony and known it for all those years and each day fed, watered and talked to it. Loss is hard.

I then went to Dundee aiming for marmalade making. On the way I was asked to buy some stamps for France and to post letters there to. The first Post Office I went to had a queue of nine people and only one counter open. I went on to another and queued for 27 minutes. To my amazement I was quite patient!

On to the friend who lends me her AGA. I had given her a tin of MaMade. All you do is add sugar and water and boil. Easy to do. We were testing to see how it tasted and Seville oranges are not due for a month or two. It was so easy to make but too sweet. Next time I would add lemon juice and maybe more orange peel, as I love chunky marmalade. It was fun. Distanced, masked and gelled while making coffee, marmalade and conversation. New ways are to be devised.

I then walked up in to Dundee to the fabulous Tate Gallery overlooking the Tay. I walked along the Tay. It was dark with a fine crescent moon. Trains passed across the Tay bridge and seemed almost empty even though it was rush hour. Quite a few cars and even some planes coming in to land. Most exciting were the two skeins of geese. Their honking was loud, their shape superb and my heart rejoiced. I had also learned this afternoon that a collection on pigeons is known as a loft. At least that was it, I think, but there were many others. My memory fails.

I returned to find a parcel from Amazon which I am about to open. I have had permission so am excited. I am deliberately missing the Covid news. Somehow walking the Tay pathway made me feel life was still free with the beauty of nature at hand. It has changed but not ended. I am relishing what I can.