De Colores!

This was the first morning that the sun rose sufficiently far north to waken me - not on my face, but shining on my bedside table. It looked a lovely morning as I sat drinking me tea; I got up quite briskly and went into the shower - and by the time I came out again it was grey and raining. Nothing lasts ... Except, of course, the need to go shopping. There were gaps today, very noticeably in the vegetable oil section (there was none) and the posh pasta shelf, as well as a dearth of happy chicken breasts (if you know what I mean.) I took ages - what with hunting for things and trying to find sake (they don't sell it) and explaining to the startled check-out lady with whom I'd discussed my impending holiday why it was that I was there at all, it was nearly 9.45am before I was home for my porridge.

After that the listlessness set in. I had a lovely long phone call from a friend in Kington (on the Welsh Border - are we still up to driving so far?) and I did some Italian, at which I kept making mistakes and wondered if my brain was just expiring quietly. I heated up some falafels for lunch and fell asleep over a bit of Sunday's paper and felt about a hundred.

I dragged myself (and Himself!) out before dinner. I'd noticed the wee cruiser Hebridean Princess heading up the Firth towards the Holy Loch, so we decided on a slight change of scenery and drove along to Hunter's Quay to park. By the time we'd got out there the sun had gone again and there were ominous swathes of gloom heading down the loch towards us, but we bashed chillily on into the gathering fine rain. Though I was wearing my big Paramo jacket and a fleece I was still cold; my hands were aching with it. (Why don't I wear gloves?)

However, we were suddenly cheered by the vision beside us of the very best rainbow I've ever seen. Growing in intensity and then producing a secondary rainbow, it seemed to be pointing to the little ship as she lay at anchor off Kilmun. I took a whole group of photos, of which I think this is the rainbow at its brightest, and knew that I don't wear gloves because they slow you up when you need your phone ...

So De Colores - look at the colours: a song of hope and fellowship. The rainbow cheered me up and I came home and cooked ginger salmon ramen with pak choi and sesame seeds. The Ten O'clock News showed startling bravery on the part of some correspondents in Ukraine, and BBC QT demonstrated the amazing English and passion of an impressive member of the Ukrainian parliament, as well as the utter loathing that Putin seems to have for all who oppose him. 

Do you think we can be physically worn out by an emotional reaction to the world?