Approaching Crinan

We took a holiday today - just a one-day holiday, abandoning everything else to drive to Lochgilphead, have a remarkably good lunch in the admirable Smiddy Bistro and, fortified by garlic mushroom omelettes and a cheeky bit of cake, to walk the length of the Crinan Canal from Cairnbaan to Crinan and back. We've done it before; it's 9 miles of canal-side path above the ancient and historic Moine Mhor, but I guess we'll wonder every time now if we're going to find it too long for an afternoon hike...

But it wasn't. It was as lovely as ever, on a perfect day of warm sun and passing clouds. This is the photo I chose as being typical - the bridge, the cottage originally built to house the family of the man who would operate it for passing boats, the sky reflected in the dark water, the stillness. What it doesn't show is the artist at the crazily-painted wooden hut/caravan/shack with whom we had a shouted conversation across the canal, nor the expanse of one of Britain's most important peat bogs below us - on the right of this particular photo. I shall put in an extra of that view, though not one that shows the ancient fort of Dunadd - it was too hard to photograph well with the way the light fell and the fact that I only had my phone with me.

We didn't get home till after 8.30pm, when I cooked dinner and ate it and then ... Suffice to say it's now almost 1pm and tomorrow normal service has to be resumed!