Sunset song ...

Today began so grey and dreary that I could scarcely make out the naval vessel that is in my extra for today as it slipped down the Firth towards the sea - though I did see it coming back upriver a couple of hours later. HMS Trent is a counter-piracy and other inshore badness vessel, apparently; I thought it looked rather trim. But I could hardly believe the transformation come the afternoon, when we headed south to walk under the big sky overlooking Bute and Arran. 

We walked as far as Knockdow House and back to the Ardyne car park, watching the sun dipping towards Bute and noting that it vanished on the dot of 5pm, which is extremely encouraging. On the way back we passed this big old tree, half of which now appears to be dead, just as a good number of black birds - crows? rooks? - swept up and deposited themselves in its branches. They didn't stay long - just long enough to check that all was well, I'd say, and then they were off. Is it a sign of my preoccupations that I couldn't help the words "the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" popping into my head?

And just because it was such a lovely afternoon and I had a job to choose my blip for today, I'm going to add another one, the view looking back to Knockdow from the neighbouring field.