Not quite as intended

I was so late in bed last night (after 1am. Don't ask) that I could hardly get my eyes open in the morning - I was reminded of what it used to be like when I was young, when sleeping all morning was always a possibility. The sun wasn't shining, so the bedroom wasn't flooded with importunate light either, and my first thought was that I'd go to church, all that, and then take the rest of the day easy - stay in (it was raining slightly by now), read the papers, cook dinner, relax ...

Didn't work.  Church, yes - would need to be fire, flood or escaping from Dunoon to change that. So church, with a nice wee Taizé piece to sing at the Communion and another jolly chat that became ever more outlandish in the car park afterwards - I sometimes wonder what our 50-something Rector thinks about the collection of wild septuagenarians he has keeping his church going.

On a day such as this, when it's not warm, not sunny, but just warm enough to fool our central heating into staying off after breakfast and the house is therefore not the warm hug we need after the chill of the church, it takes us some time to warm up. We sit with coffee and the paper in front of the fire, and I can hardly bear to move to get some lunch, so we tend to be late. Even so, we were both dropping off in an elderly sort of way when some demon goaded us into action and before we knew it we were outside, getting into the car, driving up the road to Benmore. Clearly a walk was needed to keep the circulation functioning adequately ...

It wasn't a long walk. Just 8 kilometres along the Eachaig and then some way along the far shore of Loch Eck. We met three sets of people and two dogs, but it was very peaceful, and despite the grey sky the signs of new growth cheered everything. Blipping some fat pussy-willow overhanging the river at the pedestrian bridge to Benmore Gardens - the same river that I've photographed in post-rain spate some three feet higher than it was today.

I stayed awake long enough to be traumatised by Line of Duty, but now bed seems very enticing. A final thought before I go: are there more Great Tits (birds!) around everywhere this Spring, or have they just all moved to Argyll?