First day ...

I looked out this morning while I was dressing to see our crescent busy as it hasn't been for six weeks - busy especially with little people with huge rucksacks being shepherded along the road by their mums, with here and there a pair of superior beings from further up Dunoon Primary School who were old enough to go to school by themselves ... and in the background, as it were, on the gleaming, still waters of the Firth of Clyde, a nuclear submarine slipping north to its base. It was having small children here, in such close proximity to the deterrents of two nations, that drove me to be a vociferous member of CND.

As often seems to be the case, it was a perfectly glorious day here as the holidays ended. Great billowing clouds passed to the north and to the east of us, but we had sun, little wind, and absolutely no rain all day. I managed to fit in a yoga session and a trot down to the shops before we abandoned everything and went out for lunch with two delightful chaps who've recently moved up here and now sing magnificently from the back of our church. Because of the prevailing social whirl that the church after-service coffee has become, we never really have much chance to talk, and lunch seemed a suitable vehicle for conversation.

We met at The Blairmore, a simply wonderful small café-restaurant that has opened a few years ago now in the middle of Blairmore village, at the pier. It's become the kind of place that you can't imagine the community doing without now, so I hope they thrive, especially now that they've opened a wee shop next door. (I bought a small Stornoway Black Pudding - the best make!). Lunch lasted well into the afternoon, and I don't think we had any silent moments at all ...

Afterwards, Himself and I went for a wander along the shore road in the sunshine, eyeing the all-too-visible showers falling on the other side of Loch Long and up the river towards Glasgow but never feeling so much as a drop. That's where the photo comes from - I liked the view of the firth through the arch of the huge trees on the road outside Blairmore. When we got home I put on the shorts and took the Sunday papers (I know...) out to the garden, which did my hay fever eyes no sort of good but which I couldn't resist. Much later, I made blipper IainT's recommended pasta recipe with courgettes, garlic and pecorino cheese for a light dinner (it was lovely) and collapsed in a heap.

It's very sad that having fun is so knackering ...