Inside looking out

The barometer is uncommonly high, the weather glorious, in a perishing cold sort of way ... and I've spent most of the day indoors, looking out at the sunshine and feeling only minimally inclined to go out and enjoy it. I'm comforting myself with the thought that if this vaccine that I received yesterday is making me feel so awful, my immune system has really been shaken up - a thought that is probably completely unscientific but helpful psychologically.

There were lovely moments, however awful I felt. Another long chat with #1 son on the phone; the readily offered assistance when my online shopping list came up with so many missing items (how can they know they will have no bananas tomorrow afternoon?) A specially touching moment occurred when one of the church wardens appeared out of the blue at our gate, bearing a bottle of champagne and a card thanking us for the music we've been recording for church services - to me, that's what we do, while others do things I'm hopeless at. 

Other than these highlights, I went out for under an hour to sweep snow from the slabs of the front path and put salty grit on the ice that has formed on some of the steps. We have solid rock not far below the surface of our garden, which is on the slope of a hill, and water drains off it and comes out at our front gate, providing a lethal patch of ice that grows during a cold spell. I even had a top-of-my-voice three-way conversation with our neighbour and the chap across the road - all very neighbourly. (We go for weeks without seeing each other in the winter.)

The day ended with an online vestry meeting; it wasn't long but by the end of it I was unable to keep still and on the verge of falling off my seat - and that was after two paracetamol tablets. And now I'm about to go to bed with some more pills and hope that things feel better in the morning.

Blipping the view of the sunrise from the bedroom window; I especially liked the little curl of smoke from a recently-lit fire somewhere below us. 

As a last word: a big thank-you to all the people who left good wishes and stars yesterday. It's all been rather splendid.