Looking at my drafts I find a post I wrote while still house sitting but had not finished or published. So putting it up now, although it ought to be slotted in before the last post.  Putting it up anyway!

28th March

In Fountainhall again, annual visit to house and cat sit for J&R while they're away.
Snowed last night, bit unexpected!
Elderly cat Thistle peed on the floor - very wobbly and forgetful, her daughter cat Brinjal pointed it out to me so I could clean it up, she gets quite worried about her mum.
Yesterday a small fan heater gave up the ghost, which isn't great when it belongs to someone else. Then I found the fridge had gone off.  What!
Also noticed recently the birds weren't coming to the feeders very much - such contrast to their mobbing them till just recently. Started to get a bit of a complex - breaking electrical things, frightening away the birds ...
Good pal M popped in the back door for a blether and pointed out I had switched the fridge off the night before by mistake when I thought I was switching off the outside light .. duh ..
plus, getting warmer, birds probably finding other things to eat..


We went for a walk. Feeling so 'banned' from normal wide range roaming by the New Borders Railway, wondering about ways round or through, i had noticed that if you climb over a barbed wire fence you can get under a railway bridge which goes over the river to one of our walks which have been blocked off, so we tried it, well M tried it!  She thinks it can be done, a bit of a long way round so one for a longer walk.

Then we came across this jacket hung on this small tree - very incongruous. What happened - did the wearer get so excited and delirious they threw off their jacket while running through the field; did the wearer get hot and annoyed and chuck it off in irritation; did the wearer go fishing hanging it there but forgetting it or did they just decide they didn't want it anymore and hung it there for another walker to find, thinking they might like it.  hmm. none of it seems all that likely. Perhaps it is a secret marker for something...
anyway this is it..

Ive had a bee in my bonnet about this Borders Railway for a while now, because of having lived here in the 1980s and on and off visited over the years, especially over the last few years to cat/house sit, so I have been seeing what they are doing to the place and places along the way.  The idea of reinstating the old railway is a great idea, should be. But as time goes on you start to wonder who exactly this is for. A lot of the old stations are not being reinstated but the people living in the old station houses have been moved out, houses demolished or boarded up, pathways to and from the bus stops blocked off so people are made to walk a long way round to and from the bus adding to difficulties for those who have mobility difficulties and don't have cars. It is a 15ish minute walk to the bus stop. Apparently if you don't have a car you 'shouldn't' be living here - what a bloody cheek! And a lot of the walks have been blocked off, I suppose that is a bit inevitable though. 

And maybe I am becoming what I never thought I would become - an old person resistant to change! 

And how much has changed here - everywhere - since the '80s, which doesn't seem that long ago! Imagine we were once without mobile phones, didn't have a tv for years, no central heating or double glazing, our cars were usually falling to bits and just scraping by mot tests. (Still don't really like these all closed in cars where you can't hear the outside, I'm sure it gives a false sense of security).  And we all visited each other much more often. 

And maybe I am becoming what I never thought I would become - an old person going on about how things were in the past!

When we were much younger we thought we knew all about life, love and everything.. old people knew nothing and were always harping on about what it was like when they were young and - oh so boring! 

The seven stages of man/woman, eh. The inevitability of it all, round and round, the circle of life.