Busy bees

Today has felt busy in our particular hive in that special way that can make the last details of holiday packing feel more burdensome than the big, obvious items (like clothes, for example). Things like divvying up the euros that are left over from the last time we escaped these islands, getting the printer to work for a copy of passport pages, deciding on what bits of paper are actually vital and what could wait till something happened - that sort of thing. I hate it. 

It was once again gloomy until late afternoon brought a few gaps in the cloud; the sky annoyingly turned blue as we finished dinner and it was too late to do us any good whatsoever. I allowed myself to fall asleep after lunch and then felt if I didn't go out I'd scream, so rather late we drove to Toward and marched up the farm road. I took the photo of the Himalayan Balsam as we came back down; its strange smell, like coriander only not quite, alerted us to its presence. This is the first year we've seen it up that road, and we were wondering how it got there - tractor wheels? (There was a great muddy wheel track invading the verge at some points on this narrow road). I saw quite a lot of it in Oban last week, and I've clocked it at Ardentinny, and though per se I think it's quite pretty it's not good to see it spreading in this invasive manner. But then I noticed the bee - is an invasive species still utterly bad if it is there for bees where there tend not to be other flowers? Anyway, I managed to capture the bee as it emerged from deep inside the flower, and it's more interesting than the gloomy repeats of previous photos of this area.

The evening was filled by flying text messages - from family, from friends wishing us bon voyage, from church admins about planning, drainage, loos, from friend Paddy at last succeeding in getting a date for a funeral - a date which will let us attend - and wanting ideas and hymns. I don't feel it's been particularly restful ...

The cases are sitting fatly in the hall, still open but not waiting for much more. I shall cease sitting fatly at my computer and head off ...