Slotting it all in

I had decided that today had to include a determined stab at completing the first draft of a sermon for Sunday - I've been lured down too many rabbit holes while researching it up till now. So this was the major event of my morning, between coffee and lunch - and now I have a working paper of the correct length which I shall go back to at the weekend to ensure it makes sense. Before that I washed all the towels and hung them out; happily the passing clouds, which looked heavy with snow in that sort of sinister, drifting fashion, didn't open on us and they had more or less dried by the time I took them in at about 2.15pm. And while I was waiting for the kettle to boil for coffee, and while it was brewing, I fitted in the morning's Italian session. (Thanks for the gift, Sally...)

An exchange of texts led to me heading for Glen Massan after lunch - I've not walked up there for some time now for a variety of reasons including Himself's knee. We went rather further on than I've been in ages, discovering that the bridge over the river where the head of the glen begins to divide has subsided into the river, leaving a gap of about a metre across and the same down which is precariously bridged by a rusty gangplank secured to the gateposts by canvas straps. We didn't test it - my pal Di has history when it comes to falling into the Massan! Another change shows in the photo above, where a whole line of elderly conifers has disappeared, leaving only that bare patch of earth across the fields; above this the natural surface of the hillside is once more showing after the harvesting of an entire forest. It was lovely, though we were caught in a sort of hail shower on the way down and also caught in a political discussion of the Middle East, which did the stress levels no good at all. (Note to self: do not get drawn into one of these again. It's not worth it.)

Compline after dinner helped dissipate tension, though I'm still concerned about #1 son, not yet discharged from hospital because of the side-effects of opioid pain relief post-operatively. Fingers crossed he gets home tomorrow before the blizzards arrive from the south. 

And finally: I couldn't understand what exactly was going on in Silent Witness this week, especially the second part. Anyone?