Getting out

One of the reasons I wanted to move here from the city almost half a century (!) ago was to be between the mountains and the sea, with a view to accessing both without having to go on holiday. These past few days, what with the weather, and with both of us feeling slightly under the weather, my outings have been pretty minimal and around the town, solely for the sake of getting out or the need to buy something. And this depresses me. Today we both escaped, eventually ...

The morning, however, was trivially domestic. The bread I'd had to put in the machine on the timer at bedtime last night so's we'd have some for breakfast was delicious; it seems to rise better when it sits thinking for a bit. I made tapenade later in the morning, and it was pretty fine too. We ate most of it for lunch. Himself took several huge cardboard boxes to the recycling, as well as the bits and pieces of two defunct vacuum cleaners. I washed a few things but made no attempt to dry them outside because of the dank mistiness of the morning.

The continuation of this weather into the afternoon made a quick drive down the coast seem like a plan, and right enough we rounded a bend in Innellan and found we were driving into the setting sun, fiery and golden and shining straight at us through a narrow crack in the cloud - very Leonard Cohen. By the time we were walking at Ardyne, right down at the tip of the peninsula, there was only the light behind cloud to see, but this changed from golden to pink to an amazing deep rose colour before finally fading, just before we turned to come home. 

Of the twenty or so photos I took, I chose the one above, looking along the bay at the Ardyne towards Bute, with the sea the same glowing fire as the sky, and a row of oyster-catchers standing to attention, all facing the same way, at the water's edge. You may just be able to make them out if you're looking on a big screen.

This evening we watched the final episode of Babylon Berlin. I'm going to miss it badly - it's been a rare treat, with the intriguing political background that led to the full horrors of Nazi Germany, the amazing casting - some of these faces! - and the high production values that were a hallmark throughout. It looks to me as if there could be another serial to follow this one - but not yet. 

The people across the road in the flashing blue and white house seem to have gone to bed and left their flashing lights on for the delectation of the neighbourhood. They'll be flashing on my bedroom ceiling all night ...

I'm tempted to go out with a pair of pliers.