CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Out of Place on the Commute...

(25 posts)
  • Started 11 years ago by TractorFactory
  • Latest reply from Focus

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  1. TractorFactory
    Member

    Couple of questions...

    Ever see anything distinctly out of place things on your cyclo-commute? We came across a young deer on the path between the golf courses at Royal Burgess.

    In fact, wee bit of fun, I've created a GoogleMap with this and the PingPong table I saw the other week. I think I've made it available to public viewing and editing so anyone can add to it if they like.
    Out of Place on the Commute Map

    Secondly, where would wild deer breed and roam this low down in the country. Did seem very odd.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. amir
    Member

    Deer (roe) are quite common in the Lothians. You just have to know where to look. We sometimes get them crossing the road by our house (in Dalkeith).

    We have a thread on wildlife http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=643
    but not on ping pong tables as far as I recall.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. kaputnik
    Moderator

    A crow with a beakful of grapes yesterday evening, trying to remove more grapes from the bunch it had found without dropping those it had already got held. I think it had reached peak grape, but wasn't for giving up.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. Dunny
    Member

    @TractorFactory - I once saw 2 deer in Davidsons Mains Park at about 4am a couple of years ago. My mates still reckon I was hallucinating, but I swear they were there, and they were real.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. SRD
    Moderator

    we could add some classic threads:

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=202

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. gembo
    Member

    I saw a parrot near dean village, an escapee like the wild ones at teddingtonnlock

    I saw a car in the Easter hailes tunnel with mm and three kids having tea

    I saw a man on Xmas day once a jogger I do not want to say what he was doing, but not his fault I guess, but maybe he should have gone before he went out, I had forgotten his straining face until this topic was raised

    I saw a couple just off the canal path in fairly broad daylight against a five bar gate, but tht was in west Lothian, I think the chap even waved

    All life on the commute

    Deer lovely, fairly common around Balerno. One morning pre commute I opened the curtain and there was one in my garden, very beautiful

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. Bruce
    Member

    We often have deer near our building in Granton, just near the old blue gas tower.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Someone sleeping in the middle of the path; children selling a puppy; a man with an air pistol and someone with a club with a nail sticking out the end. Not all on the same day though.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. Charterhall
    Member

    I often see deer on my ride home, often in the fields of Woodhall Farm next to CitiDogs. There were 3 there this evening.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. cc
    Member

    A small girl unicycling to school. A little wobbly but utterly confident and making rapid progress.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. TractorFactory
    Member

    Hehe cool. I have this long term ToDo in my head of trying to do my full Fife to Edinburgh commute on the unicycle.

    Might have to do it on a day off though as I might be late for work.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. AKen
    Member

    Regular A8 commuters may have noticed an elephant being exercised in the fields at Ingliston a couple oy years ago.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. Roibeard
    Member

    @AKen - interesting! I thought that the elephant was only proverbial in active travel campaigning terms.

    I didn't realise that there was one actually available, can be it hired for rooms?

    ;-)

    Robert

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. AKen
    Member

    Something to do with the circus visiting Ingliston, I think. But I'm sure they would let you borrow it if you promised to bring it back in time for the matinee performance.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. Stickman
    Member

    If it became aggresive then I don't think a D-lock or putting the bike in front of you would be enough to see it off.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. steveo
    Member

    Probably not, but the correct defence mechanism against an irate nominally tame elephant is a small toy mouse liberated from a nearby toddler.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. Stickman
    Member

    ***adds clockwork mouse to saddle bag***

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. Dunny
    Member

    Not technically the "commute" but I do regularly travel this way to my friends house, at least every other day.

    Just before the Sainsburys Craigleith turn off heading towards Roseburn on the NEPN, I saw an elderly woman in a wheelchair, fast asleep, slightly in a bush. Very hard to describe, I wish I had a camera. Odd at any time of day, but at 10:30pm it's beyond odd.

    For those of you now thinking maybe she wasn't just asleep, as I initially did, she gave a massive snort/head jerk as my flashing light disturbed her slumber. Thinking about it now, I probably should have stopped to see if she needed help, but I was too freaked at the time.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. wingpig
    Member

    A ned with his foot poking through a gap in the Heras fencing beside the diagonal path besides the Morrison fuel station by Telford college one evening last week. Couldn't tell if he was not moving due to stuckness or because he was attempting to look nonsuspicious as I approached. Didn't stop as a: he didn't call for help and b: might have been a trap.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  20. paolobr
    Member

    Similarly to Dunny, not a commute but a regular user of the Restalrig path - the other week found a long wooden ladder laid diagonally across the path resting on the metal fencing around the pitches at Hawkhill. In the dark would have been invisible and would have caught someone unawares with nasty consequences. In the evening gloom under the trees I only just saw it and braked. No idea why it was there, unless someone was trying to use it to obtain access, or deliberately placed to get someone on the path, like a cyclist. Had a look through the fence, but no sign of anyone. Removed the ladder to the side of the path. Ladder has subsequently disappeared.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  21. cc
    Member

    @Dunny I wonder if the old lady strayed from somewhere nearby like the Western General? I know from family experience that people who have memory problems are not always well guarded in hospitals. They can be curious, adventurous and understandably somewhat suspicious about being in an unfamiliar place and can travel quite far quite quickly trying to get home. I'd suggest phoning '101' if it happens again so someone could come along and take care of her.

    Mind you, I've just realised that I'm imagining an old lady in a nightie and slippers - if she was properly dressed for the evening she might have been totally in control and just having a nap on the way home from shopping...

    @paolobr thanks for the warning!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  22. Dunny
    Member

    @cc - I can't say I noticed if she was in nightie and slippers, but I most definitely never thought of that! I feel terrible now...should have stopped.

    In future I won't be such a wimp and have a check.

    If anyone saw an elderly woman as described after half 10 on Friday (20th Sept), re-assure me and tell me you passed her, conscious and properly dressed!

    Posted 11 years ago #

  23. cc
    Member

    Sorry Dunny! I dare say I'm dreaming up the worst case explanation, it's what my mind tends to do.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  24. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Yesterday was cylcing from Innocent - Brunstane through Bingham Park when we came across a makeshift barrier across the path constructed from some twigs, a breezeblock-sized lump of concrete and some substantially larger bits of log and tree trunk left behind after tree clearance.

    We stopped and moved them to clear the path (I threw the largest pieces well clear to try and discourage reconstruction) when some likely looking young lads shuffled up out of the birch trees and asked what we were going "to the gang hut". I pointed out that there were much better places to put gang hunts than the middle of the path and that it was dangerous. Unfortunately it was obvious they were going to put it back when our backs were turned. When we came back again about 4 hours later the bits of log were off the path again but in different places so assume that someone else had broken down the "gang hut" to clear the path.

    In the daytime it is an annoyance, at night, in the unlit section of the path, it could be serious trouble.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  25. Focus
    Member

    @ TractorFactory

    There must actually be some deer breading near the golf course as I said in another thread some months back that I witnessed a young deer making it's way up Barnton Avenue late one night. Once it saw me, it trotted into one of the gardens backing onto The Bruntsfield Links course and presumably entered the golf course from there.

    Posted 11 years ago #

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