Peaceful

Despite the title I've given this blip, the early morning was anything but peaceful: I discovered that our paths, back and front, were covered in black ice and lethally slippy - and our yaktrax were in the boot of the car. And so it was, Best Beloved, that I found myself before breakfast pouring the last of the salt I'd bought two years ago for just such an emergency on the flags of the back garden ... I managed to get to the back gate before it ran out and I retreated to await developments.

I managed to switch off the preoccupation with how to escape by doing my online Pilates class. I actually noticed how much more supple I've become over the three or so years I've been doing it - and my balance has improved enormously. Add to this the fact that I seem to have lost a few pounds in weight and it all felt good. Even better - the salt had worked by the time I was summoned to collect that for which I had clicked and I let Mr PB negotiate the driving down the icy lane. I must say I think Morrison's have got this shopping method wrapped up, with a couple of helpful and efficient staff to load the bags into the boot.

After all this excitement and the fact that I became engrossed in Shuggie Bain it was after 3pm and actually raining by the time we got out for a walk. However, by going south again we escaped the rain and managed a shortish but satisfactory walk along the (gritted) shore road. The light was lovely, the people few; we felt peaceful as we stopped to take photos of the view. This one is looking south down the Firth of Clyde between Cumbrae on the left and Bute on the right, to where a ship can just be made out if you enlarge the photo. I felt watercolour might have been an appropriate medium for that still sea and delicate light.

Today's question: does anyone else now find herself wondering if the statements so confidently pronounced by the BBC News actually pertain to the whole of the (at the moment) United Kingdom, or merely to England? It's not confidence-building to realise halfway through a story that actually none of it refers to us. We should perhaps just watch the Scottish bit at the end to pick up the odd crumb - I'd watch The Nine on BBC Scotland, but the timing's something I've got out of. And of course you can't actually believe a thing that comes out of Downing Street ...

...Except for the statements from Larry The Cat.