Solstice sunset

We arrived at the start of our walk this afternoon just as the sun disappeared behind Bute. It was about 3.45pm, and a cold wind was blowing off the sea so that it was actually hard to hold my phone steady. But it was dry, and the sky was clear, and as we walked back at 4.30pm we remarked on the difference to the light of not being engulfed in cloud: I've been saying for at least the past two weeks that it's dark by 4pm.

And this is the turning point: from now on the sun will be that little bit higher in the sky, the days a little bit less abruptly ended. But now, as the long night covers us once more, the rain has returned, and the poor people of Cumbria are once again flooded from their homes. Our part of Argyll is often wet and miserable, but it seems to drain efficiently and recover as soon as the rain stops. 

And every now and then, we have lovely sunsets ...