Come for coffee?

The text pinged in as I was just clearing up after breakfast. A late breakfast, after another night zapped with Ibuprofen which left me still comatose when I should have been getting up. Would Himself and I like to come round for coffee? At first I regretfully declined: I had (and still have!) a sermon to write and had just arranged to have it vetted later; I had a phone call to make; it was late ... and then I looked at the sun outside, reflected that rain is promised for tomorrow, asked if we could come after all.

A rather slow drive round the Holy Loch and through Kilmun and Strone took us to my bestie's (or perhaps "Our besties'") garden in Blairmore. Their garden is a great deal more spacious than ours - most of our land is at the useless front of the house, with the back sitootery just big enough for the two of us - and they have proper chairs and a decent table. We settled to our coffee, with the view of Loch Long just beyond the palm tree (behind the parasol).

And then coffee segued into lunch and on into the afternoon, culminating in a  walk along the shore to the other end of the village and back (extra photo). We talked non stop - about houses, coping with houses, coping with gardens (this all in the light of declining years), about education and what was wrong with the SQA and everything else (we're all teachers). The sun grew hot and the parasol was moved to cover more of us. I felt my skin grow hot, and I didn't care. It was just lovely.

And it had me thinking how we need to do more of this - to give up planned activities and routines when we have the chance, to be relaxed about getting things done eventually, to make the most of our friends and friendship. Otherwise it doesn't seem worth it to worry about preserving ourselves from pestilence and death, because we're not really living. By the time we left it was 4.40 in the afternoon. Morning coffee had lasted 5 hours. Real holiday stuff.

And then Scotland were gubbed by Croatia. As I say, we need to make the most of what we do have ...