Still seeking tranquillity ...

The return from a break from normal life is always difficult. I remember still the strangeness of our top flat after 8 weeks of summer spent on Arran when I was a child - the way it was so familiar yet utterly strange. Today plunged me into the unavoidable - the washing to get hung out to dry, the larder to replenish, the computer to fight with (this last was an issue with Flickr, where my pro account, complete with over 30,000 photographs, suddenly became impossible to access. I've managed now ...)

But at last, in the second part of the afternoon, we got out. We managed to avoid the cars which were screeching round our usual hillside walks (the Argyll Rally) and find peace on Loch Striven, where a barely perceptible wind was just moving the most distant boat with the blue and white sail. Imperceptibly it kept pace with us, more or less, but had fallen behind when I took this as it crept further up the loch. Seabirds called, and a heron squawked as it left a tall tree and took to flight. The water barely rippled at the shoreline, and the sun was warm. 

I think the absence of wind is what struck me after my three days in the constant winds of Lewis - do they ever cease? We called it the wind of the Spirit*, and were glad it was so active ...


*ruach