The Moon and Leila.

The walk tonight was a walk of a thousand puddles, courtesy of all the rain we had today. The sky had cleared, though, and so every now and then the moon would look up me from the road – just briefly as I passed by a conveniently placed pool of water. And that reminded me of my old friend Leila and a story that I might have told back in the early days of blogging, but which bears repetition.

About three winters ago Leila was doing her advanced medical training at a hospital in Inverness, and one night she went for a walk along the riverbank at about two o’clock in the morning. It was during a very cold spell; the temperature was substantially below freezing and there was deep snow lying. She took a flask of hot herbal tea with her – ginger, if I remember correctly – just so she could see the moon reflected in the surface. She even sent me an e-mail telling me how thrilled she was to see it. That’s the kind of person she is. But that isn’t the best bit. The best bit is that as she was walking, an otter climbed out of the river and walked alongside her for a little way. Otters are well known for being extremely shy of people, and I think that Leila is the only person I’ve ever known who could possibly have that happen to her.