The party's over ...

Followers of this journal who stick with my more mundane posts may know that I prefer to start my day with a mug of tea (Darjeeling with a slice of lemon, please) in bed while I catch up on the world on my phone. Though I actually had stuff to do, I stayed far longer this morning scrolling through reactions to the election of our new FM, for whom the party is now indeed over as the business of actually governing begins. One startling fact emerged for me: for the first time since I began reading his regular column in The Scotsman I found myself agreeing with Murdo Fraser...

I had a friend from church round for coffee, so I had to be clothed and in my right mind for 11am (just made it) so that we could then make sure I knew what I was doing in Dropbox with shared files and he knew what it all looked like on a Mac. Later, I tried in vain to access the local planning department, which used to be conveniently housed just along the road from my house but which is now, apparently, in Lochgilphead. No, I don't plan on dropping in there...

Later still Di came round and we went for a very familiar walk in the Bishop's Glen, which can be reached in 15 minutes walking from my door and used to hold the town's reservoir. Nowadays it's returned to being a loch where people fish and walk dogs, and is possessed of its own quiet beauty even on a dreich afternoon. Actually by the time we got there the rain had more or less stopped and as we were talking all the time we didn't really notice. I particularly love the view which is today's blip, looking down the loch towards the dam which is still there and down which today the waterfall was utterly spectacular.

A last thought: I think I mentioned on here an excrescence on my arm which had grown alarming and painful through January, which I took to the doctor for advice. He made an appointment with a specialist in IRH, which has at last come through for Easter week, but in the intervening weeks the top of the thing fell off and the rest of it has subsided to an innocuous looking blob. I'm thinking of cancelling the appointment - I think it was probably actinic keratosis and we have the appropriate cream, which I used. Rash or sensible?

And having committed the question to the wisdom of Blip, I shall head bed wards.