whatever the weather

Most Edinburghers will be loving our Indian summer.  Today I was especially aware of it while walking along Princes Street under a brilliant blue sky with a beguiling  hint of haze.  I felt an inner flutter, a frisson of energy, a bursting to get out from within, get out in an emotional sense, the easiest option being by writing.

I studied what the passers by were wearing.  By late September or even before,  in Scotland at least, thoughts turn to winter clothes.  There is an inner conditioning warning us that with autumn well underway, we must protect ourselves from the cold.  The idea of going out in summery garments seems risky, so we take a jacket - just in case.  Today I saw a mixture of clothing: t-shirts, with a warmer garment under the arm, fleeces, skimpy tops of the young and immune, the ones who gallivant around Edinburgh on frosty evenings in sleeveless dresses and miles of bare legs, the elderly in their winter coats and tights.  Habits are hard to break, ways of thinking equally so.  I remember during a week's stopover in Hong Kong, needing six days before I realised the absurdity of taking a cardigan should we still be out and about at midnight.

Today I imagine office workers are dreaming up excuses to step out for a while: offering to buy lattes or baguettes for colleagues, eating their lunch in Princes Street Gardens or the nearest green space.  Primary school teachers will be wishing the curriculum wasn't written in stone, that the understandably necessary security procedures weren't mandatory and that they could spontaneously take their class somewhere to enjoy nature.

As for me, I have a commitment this afternoon which will allow time to sit on someone's balcony for a while.  I'll be looking over at trees, with scattering thoughts, none of which likely to be erudite.  Afterwards, I could walk home, because the light will still be wonderful.

It doesn't matter that the evenings are turning nippy, necessitating adding warmth by clothing or heating.  While this glorious sunshine continues, I'll be content.

Jane