Waverley in the mist

I thought I was going to have to produce another blip of desperation, an indoors sort of blip - a photo of the food I cooked today for a gathering tomorrow night - but another kind of desperation drove me out in the rain this afternoon for a considerable hike round a hillside in the rain with my pal. We were emerging from the woodland above Blairmore when we heard the unmistakable thump of PS Waverley's paddles, and sure enough, through a gap in the trees and over the heads of some sad-looking cattle, we could see her making her way down Loch Long among the various greys of the afternoon.

The picture of my cooking would have been more colourful - a Greek recipe for "giant beans" (butter beans in my case) in vegetable and bacon sauce. we ate this dish twice in our recent visit to Crete, and I've been meaning to make it ever since; it's as well there will be several of us to eat it as the recipe called for a whole bag of dried beans.

It's delicious, by the way. I tasted it, after the muddy walk had left me damp and starving ...