Very local

It's strange how feeling under the weather makes your world contract. I'm pretty sure now that this is just what my GP used to scrawl down as URTI on the certificate you had to get if you were going to be absent from school (teaching, not learning!) for more than three days, so my symptoms are no longer exacerbated by hypochondria - but honestly: when did I last have painful swollen glands in my neck? However, the impressively swift delivery of the kit for self-administering the PCR test for Covid had me fighting with the cardboard origami to construct the return box (they've changed the shape, I think, so that the corners don't really work) and popping out briefly to post it. (The anxious needn't worry - the post box is two streets away and I came and went without meeting anyone). 

That's when I took the photo above, rather than blipping another old photo like yesterday's, though I realise these oldies attract more approbation than any others. It shows a bit of Dunoon that you rarely see photos of - the grass on what was originally Gallows Hill, at the heart of the old town, with the Victorian crescent which overlooks the town and the East Bay behind it along the crest of the hill. The trees have changed in the time I've lived here; you can see where some of the old giants have been cut down, mostly when they became unsafe, and replaced with new ones. The Bishop's Palace used to be nearby, where the primary school now stands.

Other than that short outing, I've just moped around all day. I did the odd useful thing - how disgusting the interior of a washing machine becomes! The pink algae is a particular horror ... And in anticipation of the promised rain, I washed a load of towels which all dried in no time. We had lunch outside, and I fell asleep again. The sky hazed over, and the temperature remained benign. Clouds moved in seriously in the evening, but there's still no rain. I have not watered the plants for two evenings now ...

Thanks to all for crossed fingers and good wishes - it's amazing how bad fear can make you feel. Tonight I merely feel tired and my neck hurts. I remember this from childhood. Is my body telling me something? 

Don't answer that!