Saturday

I'm finding it harder to pin down what day we're on at the moment, when only Sunday and Thursday are defined by their activities (church and shopping, natch). I'm also finding it hard to identify summer in these changeable, often slightly cool days with winds which the BBC site describes as "gentle breeze" or - occasionally -" moderate wind", which sounds a bit like something Gaviscon might help. 

I did a couple of things in the morning which lifted it out of the routine, one of which was to phone our old friend Martin who was rector here back when all of us were young and then bishop when all of us were a good deal older. It's great to have friends - for his wife, who often rescued my #1 son at the school gate when his mum was late/kept in with the baby,  was with him and joined in - with whom you can plunge into conversation without preliminaries even though it's been months since you spoke and they're at the other end of Britain and in fact are walking in the Scilly Isles when you call ...

And I went to chat to the pharmacist about eye drops, and found her helpful and knowledgable about such things as preservatives and their attendant problems.

We went out for a slightly longer walk than we've been doing when mid-afternoon brought no improvement in the weather, walking from Toward school to the end of the Ardyne and back. The tide was on the turn, so the horde of Canada Geese who like to occupy the furthers out sandbank were gradually being crowded off it. As we passed, they were clearly debating - noisily - when they should start leaving the sea and heading to the field where they spend the night, with small groups of about a dozen taking off at the end of each debate and flying in formation over us. (The photo shows them, the dark lot, at the water's edge, with the gulls closer to land.)

As we walked back along the road, the Waverley passed on her way home from the sail through the Kyles, and the wind was full of the smell of the sea. And that was Saturday.