2021 split in two and this is part two

23 December 2021

Well hello to all of you beautiful people of read. Are we ready for Christmas? I am now:)

What a year 2021 has turned out to be. Here in Scotland, we started the year in a lockdown and here we are, about to end the year in another lockdown!

This is the continuation from yesterday's post 2021 split in two

12th June 2021 Do you remember that I had mentioned the burger joint in picture number 3. Well, I was invited to be a mystery shopper for the Scottish Takeaway Awards, and this was to help judge local eateries on their home delivery service. I was asked to be one of the mystery shoppers for the burger joint.

My picture does not do this justice at all. We have a local High Street award winning butcher. He supplies the beefburgers and all the meat products. The burger in the picture had a burger patty and a white pudding patty complete with bacon and a creamy whisky sauce. It came with Mozarella cheese sticks and dirty cheesy fries with bits of black pudding in them. It really was heaven in a mouthful. I duly voted and was happy to learn that they got all the way to the final, meaning they are one of the best takeaway restaurants in Scotland. Impressive stuff indeed.

18th June 2021. I mentioned in picture 2 that the blown socket was a blessing in disguise. So whilst we were in lockdown, the landlady hand delivered an eviction notice stating that she wanted the flat back for her daughter to move into. As we were again in lockdown, finding another place to live was not easy. After two unsuccessful months of trying to find somewhere in the same town, I broadened the search and arranged to view a flat in Kirkcaldy, which is a bigger town about five miles up the coast.

I now call this hill Murder Hill, because it is murder when you walk up it with bags of shopping. The blessing I mentioned previously was that I viewed the flat after walking up Murder Hill and took it immediately. It is located on the opposite side of the road to the stadium and just past it. It is a much better flat than the previous one, and is quite loud but interesting on match day as you can hear all the roars and boos of the crowd.

13th July 2021 As it turned out the blessing about the new flat kept continuing. Whilst I was out for a stroll on a hot day in July, two weeks after I moved into the new flat, I came across a park five minutes walk from the new flat. This was called Beveridge Park and after I read the Park entrance notices, I discovered that they had a boat pond.

Once I found the boat pond, I discovered that due to the pandemic the boat rentals were closed. However, they had a children's adventure playground beside the pond. I then notice a big queue of people beside an ice cream van. Any excuse for ice cream. We call this sort of ice cream Mr Whippy and when we put a chocolate flake in it, then it becomes a 99. I ate the 99 and discovered more of the park

31st July 2021 The blessing continued to give as it turned out the Park not only had a boat pond, but it had woods attached to it, and was a haven for local wildlife. As an animal lover I had great fun exploring and started to feed the animals and become recognised by them. I started to get to know the ducks pretty well. The noisiest duck I heard I named Dafty (from the Scottish word daft, meaning a wee bit silly), he would quack forever and when he saw me, come racing over the water quacking away. I discovered he was a Pomeranian duck, which was unusual as the other ducks were Mallards.

He also was a romancer and had a tangled love life. At one point the two females in the picture, Milly and Molly would be fighting over the right to court him.
I had so much fun with all these conversations I had with Dafty and his fellow ducks that I wrote several stories about them. They proved very popular with the readers there. And so one of my alter egos Eddie Wildlife was born. I know he is your favourite @coquicoin

3rd August 2021 Eddie Wildlife did not stop at talking and feeding the ducks, oh no he went exploring the wooded parts of the park, and met plenty of squirrels. The most popular and most friendly was one named Sammy, who being so photogenic and talkative featured in many articles. Sammy was as bold as brass and would run out to be fed whenever I was around. In another part of the park was where another squirrel lived.

I named her Sabrina, and try as much as I could, I could not get her to come close. I would leave nuts and oats on this particular rock which I had seen her playing on. I would go there and leave the food and then go for more exploring. This day I did the same thing, but when I returned, there she was eating on the rock, and rather than run off, she actually looked at me and carried on eating. It was a breakthrough moment and then of course she became a chatterbox. Her area of the park was much further away from the pond than the area bossed by Sammy.

10th November 2021 This next picture brings happy memories but will be a reminder that some good things come to an end. The park has a resident pair of Mute Swans. Of course Eddie Wildlife being Eddie Wildlife he got to know them and their family. Mr and Mrs Swan (Steve and Susie) had seven children, unfortunately one of the children or cygnets was killed and eaten by a seagull, so they had six. Eddie Wildlife was lucky enough to get to know them and infact named the cygnets as the Pies.

Yes there was six pie children, Cutie-pie, Strawberry-pie, Mud-pie, Blueberry-pie, Blackberry-pie and Coo-pie (with Coo being the Scottish for Cow). Steve and Susie were very protective of their children, and who could blame them after one of their kids was eaten by a seagull. Eddie would feed the swans with special duck and swan food. This particular day I was taking some shots of Cutie-pie when her brothers Mud and Coo swanbombed the picture. It has been fun seeing the six cygnets grow up, but this will end as around February time, the father Steve will evict his children and reclaim the pond for himself and Susie so that they can make and produce another set of cygnets. So I just enjoy the six pies whilst I still can.

3rd December 2021 The picture here now symbolizes covid life for me. Throughout December, there was to be a Winter Market and Artisans fair on the High Street on a Friday and Saturday. It became really popular and the entrance to the market was guarded by two Nutcracker soldiers making sure nothing untoward passed.

So yesterday, Scotland has brought in new Covid measures as a result of the new dominant Omicron strain. I learnt that the Artisans who operate the market have decided to cancel the market that was due to be held on Friday or Christmas Eve.
When will this pandemic ever end.

There we have it, some wonderful memories brought back by looking through my gallery of pictures. They are certainly not the best pictures that I took in 2021, but they all evoke memories as soon as I look at them.

This is part of a contest that I participated in at hive see the full post here

That is it, the  #ChristmasChallenge2021 has now closed ... Will drop a wee update tomorrow!

Copyright @TengoLoTodo   2021 and yes All Rights Reserved. All images, words, and ramblings are from the author unless otherwise stated.

100% original content from this mad Scotsman!

And don't forget ;)

Haste ye back.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Scotland.