Cookies and Crows

After my Wednesday Oasis visits I continue down the road for a few more miles to do the week's grocery shopping. I loathe grocery shopping but if Toad did it we'd spend twice as much on food so needs must.

The railway heading up the west of Scotland runs alongside the shop car park. Or perhaps I should say the shop car park is alongside the railway, since the latter was there first by a long shot!

Anyway, I've taken to drinking my free coffee either sitting in the car if the weather's bad, or standing outside staring at the sea and the railway track, if it's fine. Most days, there are crows keeping an eye on the beach and the car park. Perhaps I should take them some scraps, though crows around here seem to do well on mussels. They, like the local gulls, lift closed mussels to a certain height and then drop them in the hope the shells will crack on impact with stones on the beach. Crows also drop mussels on the shore road. I haven't seen gulls using the road like that yet.

I'm not generous enough to give them some crumbs of my cookie! Even though I can't usually eat one of these all in one go, I keep any remainder for later. Smarties, sorry, chocolate beans, are probably not good for crows anyway, though actually, chocolate beans in moderation probably wouldn't do them any harm, just as they don't to us.

This gorse through the fence is looking a bit the worse for winter, with the constant onslaught of salt-laden prevailing winds that it gets. I'll look forward to its flowering. Every time I drive round the loch these days there is a bit more gorse in flower.