Kingdom

Not up as early as I’d hoped/planned, but soon headed off to Fife for a day out. Stopped at a garden centre to buy a plant for my host, then enjoyed a long walk along the beach at Lundin Links. Lovely bright weather with a pale sparkling blue sky, although a fair bit of cloud in the distance. I should definitely just check the forecast and head to the sun wherever I can to get a walk and a spot of exploration each weekend I think.
In the car and on my walk I was listening to the Brit Bennett book The Vanishing Half that had been the subject of last night’s book festival interview. Loving it...I really like her writing style. Everyone I passed on my walk and in a little farm shop I stopped in and picked up jam raspberries and local sausages was very friendly....definitely feeling a bit seduced by Fife. It feels like it’s so far away from Edinburgh and a world of its own. It’s also somehow very much like my home country of Ayrshire, but nearer, so is very appealing.
Good to see G and loved playing with her little kitten as well as having a very amiable and sociable lunch and afternoon of chat...including a drop in from CB from work with a friend of hers who’s just moved into the village. They were leaving to go swimming in the sea...without wetsuits!
I’d gone there to decide on a painting of G’s that I’d seen in February. The plan had been to wait until the local art festival to decide on that or see what else she’d painted by August but the festival was cancelled and I decided to just see what she had. Did go for the one I’d seen earlier (the seascape, extra) but couldn’t resist the still life as well....the two are both styles I love despite being so different from each other.
More of the book on my way home but then a call from A about the complications of plans for their non-wedding weekend as their holiday cottage booked for Hawick with N’s family seems to be cancelled now as there’s a local outbreak and restrictions on numbers of households being allowed to stay together in accommodation. N’s parents were flying over from Turkey as a surprise but have apparently been on the phone to them all day breaking the surprise and panicking about alternatives. Poor things...
Home and managed to park just outside the door so easy to carry up both the paintings and my farm shop goodies and was indoors with tea and toast just before it got dark...good day!