Keeping an eye on things...

I knew I had to be up early - again - today. It was shopping day. (And I know "early" is a relative term, and that some of my companion blippers - which auto-correct changed to "slippers" - wouldn't consider my morning early at all). But even though I wasn't early to bed last night, I was still awake long before I needed to, when the dawn was just a greyness in the windows, after a stressful dream that evaporated within minutes. So when I arrived in the supermarket car park, I welcomed the chance to take a photo of this death-defying young gull perched on the trolley-shed, having evaded the wheels of my car all the time I was parking. 

A late breakfast and a phone call later, after coffee, I started organising myself for this trip. I always find the small things the most irritating - and after two years with no foreign travel my "small things" are scattered around, or defunct, or dried in the tube - you can work out what I'm talking about - apart from the sad little bag of things like a brand new tube of sun-screen, a full travel bottle of laundry liquid and so on that I'd packed for Cyprus, exactly two years ago. I feel better now that they're organised, and my case is down in the hall waiting to be filled.

We went to Benmore Gardens in the afternoon as the cloud retreated and the late sun shone. There was no-one about, but the rhododendrons are coming out and there were daffodils at the foot of the giant redwoods still. I've added an extra of the mossy hillside path that we were ascending - a favourite spot. When we got in I spent some time hunting out a blurb about our choir and updating it for a gig next month, so I'm in danger of falling behind with my Italian.

Today's thought about Putin's war: I've seen some very negative stuff on social media about the Patriarch of Moscow and his rigid adherence to Putin's line. There's a tendency to damn all Christians in the revulsion at this man's stance. So as a Christian I have two things to say: He's probably intent on preserving his church - remember, they were closed for so long in Soviet times. But then I say, louder and more clearly: Not in my name, and certainly not in the name of the God of Love.