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Refreshed

It rained last night.  Hooray!  The plants look so much happier for a drop of rainwater.  Tilly and I took a leisurely stroll along the drive, and a little further, this morning.  A stoat ran across the drive ahead of us, carrying something large in its mouth.  I discovered it was a dead bird, which the stoat obviously couldn't manage to drag through the undergrowth, and it abandoned the whole idea.

The birds were singing their heads off.  Gentle cooing of wood pigeon, chattering chaffinches calling for some "bread and no beer", hedge sparrows, and my favourite blackbirds, all welcoming a new day.  No larks ascending, but if it warms up a bit later on, I expect they will be fluttering and twittering away, high above.

As I walked along the track the air was heavy, laden with the heady almond smell of hawthorn, and wafts of cool, deliciously scented sweet briar, which always reminds me of apples.  

The track was still warm from yesterday's sunshine, and there was a light mist rising from the ground.   
The overnight rain had weighted down the cow parsley, and in the distance, the summit of Traprain Law was lost from view.

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