Green and gold

Some rain today, as well as some warm sun - and an air temperature that felt more like a Scottish summer as opposed to a sauna! I spent much of this morning catching up on myself - got a couple of loads of washing done and dried outside before the rain really made itself apparent; I also made bread for lunch, arranged to meet a friend for coffee later in the week, booked a table at our favourite local restaurant, now operating on a pop-up basis alongside a wedding-catering business, for a fortnight hence, and uploaded an insane number of photos from Arran onto Flickr, where I have yet to label them all. 

I roused myself from a tendency to fall asleep over a further analysis of Putin's future to suggest a walk before dinner, so we ended up on the road up Glen Massan. Two things I noticed. First, and rather dispiritingly, the way in which my hips and thighs seem to seize up when I walk on tarmac, aching in a way which suggests a lack of oxygenated circulation, as if I'd not warmed up (of course I hadn't). I also think I hate the shoes I was wearing; I've had them since buying them online during Covid and though I wore them all winter I think they're not right for me, and much less supportive underfoot than either my boots or my non-waterproof trainers. I'm going to stop wearing them for walks and see if that helps.

The other thing I noticed was the abundance of growth on everything since I last walked there - maybe a few weeks ago now. Great, fulsome trees, grass along verges and in the birchwoods, growing like there was no tomorrow. And yet the fields that haven't been touched are already golden - you can see a bit of this at the end of the tunnel of trees in my photo.

I felt very confused by the end of the news tonight - I don't think I was paying proper attention. I don't think Putin looks quite as shiny as he did; whatever has been going on I reckon he was a tad rattled - why otherwise did he suddenly fly to St Petersburg?  And the Steven Lawrence case turning up another suspect ... I once met McPherson at a clan gathering, long ago, and chatted about the fact that a clan chief practised English law. Inconsequential information that shows the wandered state of my mind tonight. 

Time for bed, said Zebedee ...