Dreaming of Arran

Another unpromising early morning resolved into a lovely day - as long as we (a)checked the weather app and (b) looked out of both back and front windows to see where to go in the afternoon! Church this morning felt chilly and rather empty when we arrived, but a few late arrivals and the service itself made a palpable difference, although we are all concerned just now with the news of a dear friend who is very ill in hospital. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the sense of a praying community is a powerful one to experience.

This time last year, we were on Arran in glorious weather, and this year I'm keeping up with blipper Munroist 4113  as she explores my happy place. Our walk this afternoon - another gentle walk out of deference to Himself's back - took us out the Ardyne, with its view across the low part of Bute to the Arran hills, which I was happy to see without the clouds on the summits so that Munroist could see them! The sand in the foreground was gleaming wetly in the sun, so that all the ripples stood out, though I fear the file size on Blip doesn't always come up with the detail I see on my desktop. 

It seemed as if half of Dunoon - or at least the people we know - had chosen to walk there today; we stopped for three discrete conversations on the one stretch of shoreside road, and had to hasten back towards the school where we'd left our car. Suddenly a fusillade of pings heralded a family drama on the other side of the country, where our granddaughter, 14, out for a solitary walk, had been stung by a bee, whose sting was still sticking out of her arm (she appended a photo). As we walked, the shared drama continued, with her father running along the front in Newhaven to meet her and do the heroic sting-sucking thing that he remembered from childhood seeing my brother-in-law doing to me when I was stung. By the time I was in the car, granddaughter was on the phone assuring me that she was all right ... See families? 

But now we must start thinking about the trip we've planned for this week - just four nights, but four nights of posh food cooked by someone else. The walking will, I fear, not be up to Arran standards, but there should be compensating attractions ...

Main photo the Arran hills; extra of a cow and a rickety fence - and the clouds towering above Dunoon and the hills as an extra: a photo taken a minute after the main one, but in the opposite direction.