Little things

I'll start at the picture today, I think, in an effort to justify my heading (anyone else find it quite a task to find new ones?) I was reflecting as I took the photo above that little things can make a difference to how we feel about life on any given day: I felt cheerful about this view of upper Glen Massan because I'd never seen it before from quite this angle, never in all the 40+ years I've been walking here. On our way up the road we'd met my bestie doing her Ben Hur thing back down it with the two spaniels hauling her along and she mentioned that she'd taken the dogs down the field to the river to let them roll around. Well, I didn't roll around, but I took the chance of the squashed winter grass to go to the side of the river and look up it. By this time some precipitation was happening over the snowy hills to the NW, and we headed down again. Actually, the story became somewhat odd then, as we came across my pal's car by the road; I'd expected her to be long gone. Turns out she was anxious about an elderly couple (I have to laugh - they were probably our age!) inside Benmore Gardens where they abut the glen road. There is no exit there; the Golden Gates are firmly locked, and she wasn't at all clear how they'd come to be there, as their car was parked near ours. The man seemed to have clambered over a fence, but the woman, wearing a long coat and a pair of crocs on her feet, was not able to do any such thing. And they had a dog ... I heard her ask if they were all right, and heard the woman say firmly that they were - but her man was rattling the gate fruitlessly. 

I'm afraid we left her to it, though I did offer to ring the police. She told me later she'd been unable to find the couple, and when she drove back up the road to check their car had gone. 

Apart from that, I enjoyed a relaxed conversation with my #2 son, which is a more unusual occurrence than you might think - running an international business from home means he keeps quite odd hours. But it was fun to laugh riotously over a Lego video on YouTube and talk about primary pupils and punctuation. (I know. It's a family thing.) And oh, I enjoyed watching Scotland beat England at rugby when we got in from our adventures - the jubilation on their faces was a joy to see. 

Looking back over the day, I realise it could have been a pre-Covid day in its ordinariness and its sociability. As I say, it's the little things that build a life.