Trying to brighten

Lord, I'm sick of this weather! It might be ok for March - then it would be mild and balmy and we'd comment approvingly after a cold winter. Or something. But the combination of inaccurate weather forecasts for us and the heat warnings down south is soul-destroying. Today it actually stayed dry till after dark, but grey and dispiriting. I actually woke feeling not exactly cold, but not warm enough - and feel I probably hadn't slept particularly well because of it, as I ached all over for several hours. I won't go to bed with three windows open tonight.

Tedious morning doing jobs I don't care for - cleaning the sink and draining board once more had me asking myself why I got a white one, and wondering if anyone else has noticed their water supply creating more black bits of gunk than in the past, or is it just Loch Eck? Anyway, that took a while and left the kitchen smelling clean, which was slightly satisfying. After coffee I nerved myself to do something I'd resolved some weeks ago to tackle: remove the shoulder pads from a leather jacket I used to wear to work. (I no longer feel the need of authoritative shoulders!). This involved delicate unpicking of tiny stitches in the satiny lining, then the nerve-racking business of unpicking the pads themselves without making a hole anywhere, then the sewing up ... I loathe sewing! Anyway, 'tis done, and I may feel like wearing it tomorrow.

I spent the early part of the afternoon reading the papers - all politics - and face-timing my fellow-alto and Pilates buddy who's had a hip replacement; we ended up laughing helplessly and I felt much better. By then Himself had finished making a batch of chickpea dahl and we were able to go for a walk, again at Toward, but up the farm road followed by a wee walk along the shore road. Most of the collage comes from that outing - the walls and hedges were full of wildflowers, with even the invasive Himalayan Balsam looking pretty. The red and white fuchsia is in a pot in my garden and has just begun to flower. As always, I loved it - the scents, the colours, the sea, a pair of seals chatting on a rock - but I'm aware that I'm in danger of becoming truly fed up with the mundane passing of days when really I ought to be filling every one with a bit more living ...

To cap it all, Himself wanted to watch the Starmer-Sunak debate and then fell firmly asleep. Sunak is becoming more and more hectoring and unattractive as a personality, and the mediator, or whatever you call her, was the second of the day to impose far too much of herself, just as did the Irish woman in charge of Woman's Hour this morning. She was one of these presenters who think their opinion of the person they're supposed to be interviewing is somehow more interesting than the interviewee ...

It's going to be a long ten days.