Looking closely at things

What a lovely day this has been - very chilly, but sunny more or less throughout its short span, and now the moon and Mars are high above St John's church, in whose hall we hold our choir practices - I think I'll add an extra I've just taken, at great personal cost because of carrying a heavy stand bag as well as my music case. 

These short days fly past, I think. I had time to wash the towels today before going to my art class, though Himself was once again left to hang them out before he went off to practice the organ - the organist's traditional Advent penance in a freezing church. Meanwhile I've decided to try my hand at portrait painting, and spent most of the lesson trying to get a likeness of my subject from a photo. I'm making my image larger than the original in an attempt to get away from simply drawing and colouring in. We'll see ...

I took the photo above on my way home at 1pm. I don't know how often I've passed these steps down to the beach without really looking at them, how they've now decayed to such an extent that the fence has been extended over the entry to them, to deter anyone mad enough to try to use them. There are several such steps, a hangover from the Victorian and Edwardian heyday of Dunoon, when laden steamers disgorged hordes of day-trippers all summer and people sat on the beaches in their suits and hats and dresses and boat hirers did a great trade all season. I had a brief vision of myself in a long skirt and high-necked blouse, with a straw boater and a parasol - but it didn't last.

The rest of the day was so short - a conversation with gas fitters, another with the gardener (cutting the back hedge); dinner at a silly time; starting to catch up on The Handmaid's Tale; falling asleep over the disturbing news about strep infections and waking with a start to get to choir in time. Almost a full rehearsal - one alto off because she's a covid contact and it's too close to Christmas - and all the music covered. Now we just need to stay well, all of us.

Oh - I wore my furry boots today, the ones I wear with bare feet.There was frost glinting on the grass as I came up the garden path half an hour ago and my watch says it's 1ºc. (Outside, not in).