Wet dog day

I'm not a dog person, so you'll rarely see dogs on my blips, but I couldn't resist endangering my phone in the downpour today to snap my pal's soaking spaniels after we'd taken them for an outing along Loch Eck-side. They were pretty subdued for most of the afternoon as we squelched along, only reviving enough to bark briefly at a passing collie as we approached the car park. I've not been so wet in a while, despite good waterproofs and boots, but the conversation flowed almost as heartily as the rain ...

Three good things apart from that: 

I shopped on foot this morning, Mr PB having taken the car to The Other Side. Two bags of messages came to 17lbs in weight - I used the luggage scale which was still lying around. That is exactly the weight I have lost over the past few years. As my feet and knees hurt quite dramatically after lugging the bags up the hill, and as I actually felt knackered at 11am as a result, I felt that restriction of portion sizes really had been a good idea ...

I got singing Victoria's setting of the Reproaches for Good Friday for the first time since 1973. It was special then, and the memories and the associations flooded back. It's also fabulous music. We sing it in English, but that's a good recording I've linked to.

I began reading the book I was saving for Lent - Saturday's Silence: R.S.Thomas and Paschal Reading by Richard McLaughlan. I may return to both these themes later.

And the rain affected none of these things!

Extra photo of Benmore Gardens as we passed the pond - you can see the rain pocks in the surface.