The clouds ye so much dread ...

I'm sure I've used that line from a hymn before - it's one of these horribly memorable lines that pop into my head at suitable moments, and this is one such, as the line goes on that said clouds are big with mercy etc etc ... and though today's clouds began wetly pouring rain over everything, by the time we left for our joint Pilates class the rain had turned to drizzle and by the end of the hour had retreated elsewhere so that it was brightly sunny. There were threats of thundery showers later, but as far as we were concerned they came to nothing, so my collage shows the clouds we drove towards in the afternoon and the weather we landed up in by turning left before we reached the hills.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Pilates class was busy - too busy, really - because the amalgamation based on the small numbers of my class attending today was overbalanced by the number from the later class. Here's hoping we get back to normal soon. I'm still creaking from our exertions - there's something funny going on in my left knee, which is refusing to bend as far as usual and has a painful click when I try. 

We had our coffee in the garden - I think I can count on the fingers of one hand how often we've done that this summer - after which I went in resolutely to the computer to work on a project I have to finish. This had me so engrossed that lunch was a tad late, and then there was emergency shopping to be done because we'd run out of orange juice and fresh fruit. 

We turned north when we left the Coop and headed originally to Loch Eck-side, hoping to walk along the west shore. However, the lowering clouds (main photo) made me suggest this deviation to the left, where I took Himself on a ramble over single-track farm roads and forestry track round the area called Dalinlongart. It's like no other area around here, all fields and farm scents and meadowsweet and unexpected moments. One of these came when Himself stiffened: "there's a huge dog watching us..." That's it in my thumbnail, on the lower row of the collage - a wooden carved mastiff or similar, with a smaller dog beside it. Relieved, we carried on; we had an entertaining brief conversation with a tree specialist who stopped to chat about the leisure pursuits of his retired teachers and told me about the route taken by a path I was interested in; we walked a gentle couple of miles in the hot sunshine and felt we were on holiday. 

Relieved by the news about Joe Biden; it seemed wrong to me that he should be pushing himself in this fashion after a lifetime of work. I thought the senior journalist John Simpson's take on the situation interesting: that if Kamala Harris is his opponent, Trump may well look old and angry and vindictive - which he surely is.

Talking of journalists: does anyone else follow the remarkable Steve Rosenberg of the BBC? His reports from Russia are fascinating.