The skies have it

Anyone unfamiliar with the arcane rituals of the House of Commons may not recognise the allusion to the cry "The ayes have it, the ayes have it" - but for the past 24 hours, or at least those in which I was awake, the skies have been rather wonderful. The photo I've chosen out of many for today was actually taken just after midnight, so in my mind it's last night's photo, but the time info tells me it was 00.05.06 so it's all right. Since I learned to name these magical noctilucent clouds, I've been on the lookout for them, and these were the most painterly I've ever seen. I took the photo just as I was locking up last night and was seduced down into the garden with my phone ...

The light sky meant I had to shut the curtains last night rather than watch the sunset segue into the dawn, but I still woke with the sun shining through the gaps I left to let the air in (Trouble with full-length lined curtains when you want the benefit of the open windows.) When I got up, the sea was sliver with the brilliance of the morning; I went to Pilates under a perfect blue sky, sat outside to have my coffee and later my lunch, fell asleep briefly between the two like a very old lady or a daft woman who can't get to bed at a sensible hour ...

We had another Loch Striven walk later, further in towards the head of the loch; despite my complaining knee and Himself's sciatica (probably a result of the long drive home from the north) we were able to enjoy the amazing ebullience of the wild flowers mounting above the road - even if it makes escaping from the odd passing car more difficult than usual.

Between 9.30pm and about 11pm, I was distracted once again by the sky - kept putting the telly on hold and leaping upstairs to take photos of a magnificent sunset. This is a beautiful place to live; the secret is, I suspect, to learn to live in it as if we were on holiday - at least when the weather insists.

Two things to finish: how strange - and how cheering - it was to see such a crowd of spectators round Central Court at Wimbledon (and to see Andy Murray winning!) and, secondly, how odd to notice how dark it was by the time they were halfway through the last set - lights on under a looming dusk while we still had the pale blue and pink sky of evening. Here's to the light nights!