Cheek by by jowl...

I had to find a handy post office today - a wee adventure in itself, as I enjoyed the moment when I asked Google (out loud, in the kitchen, you understand) "Where is the nearest Post Office?" and in a trice she told me. (Do all these robot thingies have female voices?) Turned out it was quite close by, a short walk away. The walk took me through the old bit of Newhaven, past these houses in the old main street of Newhaven and up the wonderfully named Whale Brae, now Newhaven Road. There are cobbles underfoot, and the houses are huddled together in tight little courtyards. It could, apart from the odd parked car, be a hundred or more years ago.

Just behind these houses, round the harbour but on reclaimed land, there is a new city growing up. We were staying in one of the first houses to be built there; further out into the Firth of Forth the flats become more futuristic and extravagantly tall. It's another world, of cruise ships tendering passengers ashore, of fish restaurants and supermarket.

And now I'm back home in the west and it's drizzling slightly for the first time in weeks. My extra photo is of our reason for being away all week: Mousse the cat, whom I am even now beginning to miss ...