Not wasting a minute ...

With the current spell of fine weather forecast to end tomorrow, I was aware of trying to cram everything I wanted into today, with the result that once more I'm utterly shattered this evening. I'll try to write sense - I noticed that last night the moment I fell asleep while typing led to some repetition (edited out now!)

Church service was interesting this morning, in that it was a lay-led service (our rector is in Rothesay every second Sunday) and a sparsely-attended one (many of our regulars are off on holiday elsewhere). There was a sense in which it might have been a bit of a let-down, but no. It was an utterly lovely service - the doors were left wide open to the sunny morning, with the birdsong in the big trees outside; the sermon was carefully reflecting on our world today; the hymns matched both sermon and mood; the atmosphere was prayerful and intense; the final voluntary exuberant and heart-filling. We're so lucky!

Di - who'd been preaching - came for coffee; we caught up on the previous week indoors because the garden was too hot. After lunch I did go outside, partly because I had hung out another two washings between Di's leaving and mid-afternoon and unexpectedly heavy clouds were bubbling up and I wanted to keep an eye on them. (They did drop some rain, but hardly any.) I did a little garden-tidying but was too hot to do much. 

Later we drove down to Ardyne for a leisurely walk along behind the beach, the clouds darkening the sky but the sun lighting up the wildflowers and the shore in a dramatic fashion. We met someone who used to cut my hair when all the world was young (she also pierced my ears!) and chatted while her large dog went off for a paddle, and then set off home ... except that I was overcome by the need for a paddle. We stopped at the beach opposite the castle and I waded out over the hard low-tide sand and wanted time to stand still. Vibrant green seaweed contrasted with the brown fronds of the other kind, and there was no swell at all.

We were home late; dinner was later; we didn't sit down at all till after 10pm (I froze the news so that we could watch it, and promptly fell asleep when I set it going again) I woke and found I was watching Robin Hood, but all that violence - which never used to bother me, in films at any rate - was too much and now I'm actually off to bed and have to ...

...stop.