Shining in the rain

Today's weather measured up to what my father used to call "a real Arran stinker." (We used to go to Arran for two months' holiday every summer. There were always some days when going out was a trial of wet rubberised macs and wellies everywhere in a small cottage heated by a coal fire). So today was marked mainly by rain, and increasing mildness.

So the photo, taken as I left church today after a funeral, contains all that was typical of such a day. The vibrant yellow of the tree in the church grounds is enough to fool the camera into seeing a bright day, but the rain has only just stopped, briefly, to a slight drip and the air, milder than when we arrived for the service, is humid and full of midges. The scourge of the west coast is upon us again.

I was back at church this evening for a meeting. It was still raining, slightly; there was a blackbird singing somewhere in the trees, and the midges were rampant. They even found their way into the dungeon-like room where we were meeting, and every now and then someone would make a grab at the air as one drifted by. So tiny, so deadly.

Annoying anyway.