A place to be wise in ...

... if only that so many dead lie around. Philip Larkin's poem "Churchgoing" ends with these words which slid unbidden into my mind as I took this photo of the graveyard at the Cathedral of The Isles, Cumbrae. In fact this is a small burial ground; there is another in a field to the north of the buildings. This, however, lies below the lawns of the North College, and this afternoon was sunlit and bright with montbretia as we showed the Cathedral and its surroundings to Australian friends, one of whom we had met on a river cruise in Russia.

It couldn't have been more removed from the pale grey and gold of the River Neva, this bright afternoon, nor from anywhere else that they're likely to visit on this UK visit. A good choice for a sunny day, visiting one of the special places in my life.

My additional photo is of the interior of the cathedral - the smallest in the UK, if not in Europe.