Red warning?

I almost missed the fantastic sky that flamed briefly above the Firth of Clyde this morning; when I woke it was still just growing light, and I was finished my morning tea and thinking I might get up when I looked up (from my phone!) and noticed the streaks that make up the left hand side of the photo. That was me up all right - hanging out of the window to get a decent photo, rushing through to the back of the house for the rest of it.

Actually the day went downhill after that, both in terms of weather (and therefore photograph opportunities) and of mood. We thought we'd fit in the weekly recording session immediately after breakfast, so by just after 10am we were in the church setting out the digital recorder and by 11am we were home again. However, the general level of tension had risen by several notches, not helped by the acute chill of the church that was actually colder inside than out, which renders any need for a retake a grinding chore - and there's always the question of which of us was to blame...

After coffee, Himself returned to the church to practise and I marched off to the post office with the Christmas cards - or at least the ones we'd had stamps for. I had to buy more stamps, and took the chance to buy more poppadums (our Post Office now lives inside the Co-op) and wonder at the people who still wear masks well below their noses, as well as at the unavailability these days of the poppadums you cook yourself.

You can see the rot setting in, can't you?

I didn't get out again after that. I tried, but some dire thing seemed to have afflicted my right knee and after an agonising attempt to walk the distance of our lane I gave up and headed in for the frozen peas. I think I must have displaced something by turning too quickly - it had gone by the time I got up to return the peas to the freezer. (They're in a distinctive blue freezer bag, in case you're wondering if I intend to eat them.)

In the midst of all the nonsense about Brexit (I can't believe we're inflicting this bourach on ourselves) I note the alarming fact that Argyll and Bute now has a suddenly high figure, relative to population, of Covid_19 infection. It's actually centred on Faslane nuclear submarine base and nearby Helensburgh, which have always felt a strange anomaly geographically speaking - they're much more linked to Glasgow than to the rest of Argyll - but it's disturbing to see this huge sudden spike in our stats.

So my wonderful red sky was indeed a portent of the day to come - from my perspective anyway.