Off the leash ...?

I think I said the other day that I was feeling bad about not being able to supply the customary outings and so on that my visiting grandchildren can usually expect here - as well, if truth be told, as feeling wildly frustrated by having to be sensible and not give myself pneumonia somewhere in the rain ... Well, today it was pal Di to the rescue again.

In the course of a catch-up phone call over breakfast, when neither child was out of bed yet, she offered to come to collect Catriona, the older one, who'd been expressing the need for a decent walk. I was all set to tell her to walk along the promenade as far as the pavement went and then turn and come back, but this was a much better offer. And so it came about that before noon Di arrived in her car and whisked Catriona off - fed, clothed and waterproofed - for a dog-walk up the hills behind Ardentinny. 

So that's my blip for today: a shamelessly pinched photo of granddaughter and Rob, with at least one of the dogs, halfway up a golden hillside before the rain arrived. Meanwhile I did the things one used to in a proper sickie, like falling asleep over the Sunday papers after lunch - and playing a game. I remembered the endless games of Ludo that my patient father would entertain me with in these interminable childhood illnesses - perched on the side of the bed, twisting round to play: he must have been exhausted! That's where my extra photo comes in, as Anna and I played Pickastick, or Mikado, which I've not played since I was addicted to it some 65 years ago. Anna won - I've clearly lost my touch. Maybe it was because I couldn't decide if I was better with or without my reading glasses ...

It was getting on for teatime before the hikers returned - drier than I expected because my friends had fed Catriona before bringing her home. She should sleep well tonight. And at the risk of sounding sentimental, I have to repeat that I don't know what I'd do without these friends .

And now I must halt this dreadful fluency brought on by a snatched moment actually on my desktop computer because Anna, who should be in bed, is listening to her grandfather playing something on the piano downstairs ...