Simple Pleasures

This first January Saturday was a lovely mild day, with bright sun and just enough breeze to freshen the air and blow the clouds away. This is Edinburgh putting on an innocent face, after spoiling Hogmanay for thousands of her citizens and visitors with last weekend's vicious storm. It's a day like today (and the previous two or three) that makes us forgive that kind of environmental bad behaviour.

As it's a weekend and getting out of bed is one of my least favourite things to do, I slept later than usual and, after a nice leisurely breakfast while I finished off yesterday's Scotsman, I walked along the Water of Leith to the library at the foot of Ferry Road. There's a little damage from the weekend's storm, with a few trees snapped off, but nothing to compare with the recent wreckage in Stanley Park. Otherwise, all was calm along the avenue of trees en route to the waterside. Under the Bonnington Bridge, a man was grooming two giant dogs and the usual collection of dogs of all shapes, sizes and ages were enjoying romping and sniffing their way along the path.

I stopped at the water for a little while, to watch the ducks and enjoy my music (Dixie Chicks and Tchaikovsky today) on this lovely sunny morning. Along with the mallards, there's a bird which I think is another type of duck as it has a bill like a duck, except its bill is black. The bird itself is all black except for a white flash beneath each wing and its eyes look like gemstones. It's smaller than the mallards and not unlike a loon, but with different markings. Seeing someone standing at the rail, their response was to come closer in case there was any chance of food, so I felt bad that there were no treats to offer them. I've noticed the waterfowl usually swim against the current for some reason, which is hard work for them with their little legs going like the clappers, and must expend a lot of energy. I think there must be sufficient food here for them though because the river is stocked with trout and is healthy enough to sustain vegetation and insects and whatever it is that swims below the surface, prompting the ducks to upend their little Donald Duck bums to poke their heads into the water.

Every time I visit the library, I promise myself to borrow only what I can read in two weeks, which means two thickish books. I was borrowing CD's today too and had to be conscious of how much weight I'd have to carry back (especially considering that my return home would include a stop for a few groceries and the voluminous weekend papers). I'm a bit manic about reading though, and even the limited collection in this small library is too much for me to resist. I'm always afraid a book won't be there next time.

One of the many things my friends see as just another of my eccentricities, but which I think is just being practical, is a little notebook I carry around with the names of books and authors I want to read. These are collected from book reviews in various newspapers and magazines, as well as recommendations from friends and acquaintances and when my interest has been piqued by meeting authors when I used to volunteer at the Vancouver Writers Festival. I keep a separate notebook listing the books I've read. Now, I know you're thinking this is a deranged thing to do but it's not, I can assure you. It's only sensible when you read as much as I do because I tend to forget what I've read sometimes and there's nothing more disappointing than salivating over the prospect of losing myself in a promising page-turner, only to find I read the bloody thing five years ago. Mind you, I do re-read my favourites - sometimes four or five times (with several years in between). It's also helpful in the endless quest for new reading material because I can look for more books by an author I've already sampled.

Today's catch was a modest three - Margaret Forster, Jodi Picoult (to whom I was introduced by way of a bon voyage gift from my friend Lisa) and Lesley Glaister. I haven't read Lesley Glaister before but have wanted to try something of hers since meeting her and her husband at the Writers Festival a couple of years ago. I had given them advice about where to shop in Vancouver and made them promise to show me their purchases, so Lesley came back to unveil a pair of gorgeous handmade open-toed shoes she'd bought at the little shoe shop on Granville Island. She wanted to wear them for her event the next night but couldn't decide which colour of nail polish to wear with them. Of course, I gave her advice about a colour, which she disagreed with, so I brought her my recommended colour (OPI's Vampire State Building - the colour of merlot) the next day and she had to concede because, as we already knew, my choice was the right one. I let her keep the Vampire State Building and also gave her husband some fashion advice too but haven't read any of his books yet.

I don't want to bore you by reciting my lists of books, but if I were reading this story, I'd be too distracted to read the rest of this, wondering what the three books were. I won't go into the CD's though because I borrowed nine of those.

Okay - where was I? Oh right - simple pleasures.

Walking home with my haul of books and music, I had to forego the Water of Leith because of having to shop, so my route took me up Ferry Road, past Edwardian villas, which have front gardens in varying states of cultivation or neglect. Winter-flowering jasmine is in full bloom at the moment, arching over iron railings and stone walls, with bare branches and tiny yellow flowers shaped like stars. There are a lot of broadleaf evergreens too - ivy, vinca, camellia, etc. Plenty of plant life to look at.

These walks always leave me feeling invigorated, but settling down with a cup of coffee and delving into the delights of the weekend Times and Guardian soon had me feeling lazy and, before long, I was snuggled under a blanket, flanked by cats, all of us enjoying a delicious mid-afternoon nap.

No doubt some of you are thinking you'd have to hang yourselves if you had such a dorky, uneventful and quiet life but, although I'm outgoing and noisy and enjoy the company of other people, I have a deep need for regular periods of solitude as well. Thus my appreciation of simple, ordinary things like the ducks, the jasmine, the newspapers, books and music, together with the bliss of having the time and opportunity to enjoy an afternoon nap. I enjoyed going to the pub with some of my co-workers after work last night too, but in a different way. I think I learned some of this from my mother - how to notice and appreciate the little things around you and take pleasure wherever you find it.

And there you were thinking I was mad in the heid for adoring moss. Don't even get me started.