Before the season

Last, I think, of the completely glorious few days we've been having - it looks as if there will be more cloud around tomorrow. I made the most of it by whipping all the bedlinen from the spare bed and washing it to hang out; it was bone dry by early afternoon, which is always satisfying. I couldn't bear to spend too much time indoors when it was so lovely, but equally couldn't bear the idea of more gardening, so sat in the sun doing several Italian lessons on Duolingo. I don't think there were any neighbours about to hear me speaking to the phone in Italian ...

By lunchtime I felt absurdly tired - I reckon this age thing makes me unable to sustain the level of activity of yesterday. When I remember how I used to get two boys fed and out to school, teach a whole day, come home and make dinner and then go out and sing at choir practice, I wonder at myself. However, a comfortable chair for a while over lunch revived me sufficiently to go for a pretty old-lady walk at Ardentinny, where a path runs along the shore from the village, along the back of Glenfinart beach, and through the woods at the far end of the beach to a small cove. We came across a group of excited Edinburgh school children in helmets and life-preservers being led through the wood to a rock where they had to jump into the sea; I actually clambered up onto a headland further along to get a good view of them doing it. All good, masochistic fun - and a tiny rock scramble for me, just because ...

Blipping the view from said headland, looking down on the bright bay and the scattering of camper vans that even at this early stage in the year have colonised the parking area. We rarely visit this bay now because it's become so very busy all through the summer, and in the winter gets so little sun as to make it quite a depressing place to be. When you factor in Britain's nuclear deterrent on the far side of the loch, you really need the sun to remind you that it's actually beautiful.

I can't help noticing that the war in Ukraine has slipped way down the news items today - and that the shots of Parliament for the Chancellor's speech managed to avoid the clip that's all over Twitter, of our ridiculous PM smirking and sniggering behind Sunak as he spoke about the sufferings of the people of Ukraine.