Snake!

I saw a snake on the path between the Institute and the Observatory this morning. It was a little whippy black one, just a couple of feet long, and was wriggling away from me with a reasonable degree of haste, but it still scared me quite a bit. I'm proud to say that at least I took the path again this evening, rather than going the long way round on the road... then again, that doesn't really count for much, because I know that cool twilight is a time when snakes will be tucked up in their holes rather than sunning themselves on the steps.

Little Red Riding Hood

I picked my new bike up from town today. She looks very fine indeed. One of the guys in the bike shop had specially made a whole new bracket in order to fix the basket I wanted onto the front, and the other guy there gave me the bungee cord form his own bike, as I needed to strap things to the back, and they didn't have any in stock. I rode along the Galloping Goose for a while, and then along Lochside trail, which is lovely - all trees and little flat wooden board bridges. Unfortunately, the second half along the roads was much more hilly than I realised, and I had to get off and push quite a bit.

Pushing my bike up the hill just before sunset, I felt a bit like Little Red Riding Hood, with my new red cycle helmet on, and my wicker basket full of Timmy's donuts. The only difference was that I was worried about bears rather than wolves, and felt a bit anxious that a hungry black bear might smell the maple frosted donut. No bears appeared, though, and I made it to grandmother's house without incident.