And peace at the last ...

No, I'm not contemplating my own mortality, but the phrase from the prayer slipped into my mind as I wondered which of today's photos best summed up my feelings. In a way, the evening is a good time, I feel, because of its structure - dinner, wine, collapse in front of telly, blip, bath, bed, book ... and so this peaceful moment when the wisps of cloud in the sky over our house turned this delicate, heart-aching pink seemed to fit the bill.

Actually, I've just been having a hilarious conversation on WhatsApp with my oldest grandchild, who's been telling me how hot it is in Paris and how she's not in bed yet (it's after midnight) because (a) it's so hot (b) she's been eating an enormous ice cream and (c) she's waiting her turn in the shower. She's a very witty almost-13-going-on-20 and makes me laugh with her rapid-fire blethers that make mine look archaic, and she's fair livened up bedtime for me!

It's been such a lovely day here that even though I don't like living in a seaside town at weekends in the summer I found peace (disturbed only by the constant squeaking sound made by a circling young seagull) in the garden (I was doing some gentle cutting back) and down at Toward, to the south, with a clear view of the Arran hills. There was a great gang of Canada geese sitting in a field, while in a neighbouring field a tractor turned up with a baler attachment and began work on the recently-cut grass. Before we came home after a walk, we went onto the now quiet beach for a paddle, made rather different by the presence of several sizeable trees on the beach and even in the water, as well as a quantity of what can only be described as mud caught up all along the water-line. This all appears to have been swept down the Ardyne burn in spate after the rain, and then brought into the shore on the strong south winds on Tuesday. I bet people remove it for wood burners over the next few weeks!

I'm actually mostly not finding it hard to strike a balance between seeking company and avoiding people - it's more or less what I spend my life doing in normal times. I find on Twitter especially that people are quite polarised: the ones who boast that they still live more or less in their own houses and rarely venture out for any reason vs those who hop onto buses, get their hair done, go out to spend the Chancellor's pocket money ... And they all think they've got the right idea.

Talking of the Chancellor: Sunak caused a right stushie yesterday when he paid a visit to Rothesay (why?) with an entourage of no fewer than three cars. Apparently they all skipped the queue onto the ferry and a bunch of locals going home had to wait for the next boat. Wonder why he thought that was A Good Idea... 

And there I've gone and ended two paragraphs with ideas. Time for bed ...