Skyscapes

Today seems to have been filled with the changing sky as the promised weather front arrived exactly at the forecast time, so my blip is all sky today. I slept so soundly till the alarm this morning that I was stiff with not moving, but the sky - clearly visible from my bed - was so lovely at 7.30am that I had to get myself to the window to capture this completely still morning with the stippled pink clouds. 

(Mention of "stippled" clouds reminds me of how several of the rooms in my parents' flat when I was a post-war infant were decorated; I my father did the decoration himself, and used a blue rubber stippling pad thing to put a yellow pattern on a cream background in our sitting room, and rather different shades in their bedroom. A sudden thought took me to Google and I found this, from Hansard: 
Mr. P. Freeman asked the Minister of Supply and of Aircraft Production whether he is aware of the shortage of wallpaper and the high prices demanded; and what steps are being taken to improve the situation in view of the demand for repairs and the new housing drive.
I've never really thought about it before now ...)

We were both clothed and in our right minds before 8am in expectation of a visit from the gas man, but he phoned instead to tell us that the "big job" at the NATO fuel base was taking longer than hoped and could he come tomorrow? (sigh). However, I managed to hang out two washings and make bread for lunch and still have time to go for a walk at Toward before the weather changed. That's where the second of my photos comes from: the view south to where the clouds are beginning to move north, with Arran looking blue and defined with its own little cumulus behind Bute. There were black cattle and curlews, and it was beautifully peaceful.

After lunch, I did an unusual thing for me and met a friend for a walk round the West Bay and coffee in the Vintage Tearoom in Argyll Street, a place I've often looked into but never visited. Because we live so close to the centre, I tend not to frequent the cafes because I'm fussy about coffee, but this was actually very good and served in a dainty bone china espresso cup. This meeting had been arranged because the friend and I actually live four houses apart - opposite ends of the same block - and yet rarely see each other despite the fact that when we had not long arrived in Dunoon she tipped me off that the house we still live in, 46 years later, was coming on the market. I can't remember if we knew each other because her husband taught in the school where Himself had just taken up a post, or because we'd lived two streets apart in Hyndland ...

A consequence of all this socialising and walking, of course, was the onset of exhaustion in the evening, exacerbated by the lingering effects of the flu jag. I have never felt so affected by such vaccination - I might even be wondering if I'd caught Covid, except that I did a PCR test yesterday which came back negative today - but was reassured to learn that someone else who had it on Saturday is still aching from head to toe. 

I think I'll treat myself to some Paracetamol tonight ...