Pointless, or just my reading matter?

I thought the rain wasn't going to stop today, as the border outside my kitchen window became flooded and the water washed down the windows. At least our rose-planting reminded me of why that border fills with water - the bedrock is only a foot below the surface of the soil. And it was chilly - 13ºC on the car thermometer told me we'd had warmer days in November. It made the current situation about travel to Spain even sadder - I wasn't actually booked to go anywhere till September, but it'd have been nice to have some more hot sunny weather on the summer horizon ...

We had actually had a plan for today: we'd arranged to meet French friends, visiting up the road in Inveraray, for lunch under canvas as we did with fellow-blipper Elspeth two weeks ago. They, however, unlike our compatriots, thought better of the outdoor model and proposed meeting (indoors) elsewhere, and I realised how cautious we're still feeling in our relatively isolated lives. It's to do with our knowledge of what other people have been doing before we meet them, isn't it? So a poached egg on toast and my book on the side sufficed.

I think the book in question may have contributed to my mood. I may have mentioned that I've returned to Graham Greene's A Burnt-Out Case before I treat myself to another new purchase; I'm enjoying it much more than I did in my youth but found myself empathising a little too much with the main character, Querry, who is as much a burnt-out case as the leper who acts as his house boy in the Congolese leper colony. That sense of ennui and pointlessness is very catching.

Mercifully I was rescued in the late afternoon by a walk with my pal during which the sun appeared severe times and gave us a respite from the rain. I'm blipping the incongruous sight of Dunselma, a Grade A-listed Scottish baronial style house above Strone point. It was built as a sailing lodge for the wealthy Coats family (proprietors of the eponymous Paisley mills) in 1885-7 by the Paisley firm of Rennison and Scott. It was bought by the Scottish Youth Hostels Association in 1941, and they used it as a hostel until 1965. I reckon the palm tree by the road adds a further incongruous touch; there are several palms dotted around Dunoon and surroundings in a sort of desperate plea that we have mild weather here.

It's just the rain ...