Improving ...

I think things could be said to be an improvement today on more than one front. For a start, it was a perfect day, which is perhaps why I have extras today, one from first thing in the morning (well - my morning anyway) and the other from twenty minutes ago (it's just striking midnight: I do nights) showing my view in the morning mist, with another enormous cruise ship creeping up the Firth towards Greenock, and the waning moon bright above McInroy's Point, where our car ferry comes from. The main picture was taken in Benmore Gardens at around 6 o'clock, when I think we were possibly the last people left in the gardens; it had been utterly silent and then, one by one, birds started calling and chaffinches swooped down over where we actually sat for a bit, on the far side of this stretch of grass. We are so lucky having this amazing place to ramble in whenever we want - though it was closed all last week after that Monday storm. 

For the more mundane parts of today, I felt I was quite busy without achieving much. On and off all morning, I wrestled with the new washing machine, pulling sodden towels out in an effort to get it to balance and then shoving them back in a rage and finding it was able to spin at speed and finish them off. We even had a visit from two of the shop's senior chaps to try a few things, checking the installation was all right and so on. 

Around this I got out to pick up a prescription, look for a nice birthday card, buy some fresh fruit so that we didn't have to keep eating chocolate ice cream for pudding ... and met first my former boss and his wife, now in grandparenting mode, then our Rector buying food for the church gardening day this week; chats resulted from both meetings and I ended up throwing a sandwich together at 2pm. I sat outside and read for a while, and did Italian in the garden - though I tend to be distracted and keep slipping down the ratings.

And yes, I think the eye is improving too. Today was the first for a week that it hasn't ached all the way round; there is a lump in the original site that is still painful, but it's a huge improvement. I take my last pill in the morning, and see my lovely GP again the next morning. Fingers (as opposed to eyes) crossed...

And I started to think about what I'll need to pack for our holiday next week ...

By the way, if anyone can tell me what the blue flowers in the foreground of the photo are, I'd be (a) impressed and (b) grateful ...