To see the object as in itself it really is ...

When I started my first year at Glasgow University, my first essay in the English Lit class was on the subject of perception in literature, and the importance of reading a poem, for example, as itself, without any layers of my own. The title was the quotation from Matthew Arnold that I have used as the title of this blip. Nowadays I might tend to argue that it's impossible not to read from your own experience, but that's over half a century of thought speaking. At the time I was a blank canvas ...

So what's that got to do with today? Well, often I deliberately post photos that show lovely views, sparkling sea, brilliant colours or gorgeous grandchildren, but in fact on a dreary afternoon when one is feeling less than cheerful this view of Dunoon at the point just before the main street meets the pier fairly fits the bill. They've done a lot of work to modernise this area, traditionally known as Argyll Gardens, with coloured light systems and grass and trees, but as the day draws to a close under thickening cloud there's not much cheer - and not many people either.

We spent most of the day getting ready to go away again, trying to avoid the stressful last minute rememberings for which I am famed. There's the slight threat of Covid contact hanging over us right now, though I'm pretty sure it's so faint as to be ignorable. We shall take a couple of test kits away with us. And as we are sent news of our friend in hospital, it's heartening to know that in the forbidding cube that is Inverclyde Royal there seem to be angels of compassion and imagination looking after him. 

In other news, we've got the dates when we can go for our flu jags - though there's no mention of Covid vaccination boosters yet. Couldn't help wondering, though, when I heard of people getting a jag in each arm, how they would lie in bed if they had soreness afterwards. 

Lie on their backs and snore, I suppose ...