New venues, old memories

I took the photo in today's blip from my friend's car as we drove (well - she drove; I took the photo!) to our new venue for the Pilates class, in Hafton Estate which used to be the wooded grounds of Hafton House but which for several years now has been a sort of holiday park, all static caravans for rent (or even purchase, at prices well beyond what my house originally cost us) and gyms, pools and so on. Forty-five years ago I might have been found there walking among the trees with my then bestie, my three-year-old son, and the bestie's wee white dog; today we were all piled into a newly-created studio round the back of the main gym. I do hope they get rid of the antiquated ventilator just outside the door ...

Later, after lunch in the garden* (extra) and a sleep in the sun, we went a short and not-very-strenuous walk in Kilmun, on the far shore of the Holy Loch from where the photo was taken. Every time I go there I have other memories, of the time when the loch was full of US Navy military hardware: the depot ship (I remember the USS Hunley and the USS Holland); a floating dock, the Simon Lake,  the kind of walkway joining them, and, moored alongside, as many as three nuclear submarines. The loch hummed with the sound of the ships all the time; now it is silent but for the seabirds. We were friendly with several officers in the late 70s-80s, as many of them attended our church, but this all fell apart when it was discovered that I was involved with CND. Thereafter my presence at the Holy Loch was in demonstrations and protests. All that I remembered today.

And of course we have yet another strange Prime Minister. I despair. And right now there seems to be no way to exorcise that despair - unlike in the 80s. 

*The remains of the Greek beans I mentioned the other day. Made to be eaten in sunshine!