A good place to be

I was tempted to post another dark photo - one I took of the pier buildings at 5 o'clock, when they were lit in green and red and making reflections in the dark sea - but decided instead to concentrate on the most positive part of the day, in the early sunshine - despite the threatening clouds in the north-west - in the church grounds as we arrived for the service this morning. So I'll start by saying that I'm standing with my back to the church, looking across at the Rectory (picturesque but chilly) and the mature trees that stand around it. Himself used to stay here two nights a week when he first started teaching in Dunoon and I was still living in Glasgow and close to having our first son. I spent those nights in my parents' house to avoid being on my own with no transport - how vivid it still is after 49 years!

The service was followed by the Annual Meeting, which turned out to be possibly the most cheerful such meeting I've ever attended - again, it's been 48 years since my first. It's lovely when the incumbent says what I feel - that the current congregation is a really good place to be. We have a big proportion of people that can take on the various roles that keep a church not just alive but lively, living, vibrant - and right now we're led by the right person, and know how fortunate we are. So despite the chill that crept over us (I should think the heating timer switched off) the atmosphere was warm and even hilarious at times. A good place.

Thereafter the day took on its fairly normal winter self - Di in for coffee and a heat; late lunch; dozing over the papers, a brisk walk round the coast to see the last light over the southern horizon and the festive light show on the pier and the castle/ Then home to do my Italian, look up Christmas present possibilities, talk to family on the phone, put dinner in the oven and do the relentless exercises the physio prescribed. I hate especially the ones which feel easy at first but by 12 reps are becoming trying and by the required 20 reps are just about all I can cope with ... Must be doing some good, eh?

Watched the end of SAS: Rogue Heroes  and thought about my father's part in the Desert War (RAF, not SAS, but some similar-sounding escapades) and then fell asleep during the News. It's perishing outside now - when I locked the door the wind was blowing straight at me. It was only 55ºF in our bedroom this morning, which I think is about 12ºC ...Brr.