And repeat, without the sunshine ...

I have to say I'm pretty fed up with this weather. We've not had the comfy garden chairs out from under their cover since June - it's not been at all the weather for sitting out with a G&T or a nice lunch since before the school holidays, and now they're going back (in Dunoon, the day after tomorrow). Today there were dry spells - there was even some sunshine while we were in church - but there was a lot of grey and a lot of rain.

Church left us both exhausted again - it's crazy, how the coffee hour or so after the service has turned into a party, with two small boys appropriating an equally small dog, while polyglot conversations erupt into hilarity (I was having a rush of blood to the head while talking to our Frenchman) and the sound system emits ear-splitting noises as someone tries to remedy an apparently non-functioning speaker ... Let me tell you, that was the only non-functioning kind of speaker in the building. 

After that we had the usual conversations with Di over strong coffee (today about how we learn music in schools, and how we did sol-fa in the past) which meant that we were still finishing lunch at 3pm. By this time it was raining heavily. Would we end the afternoon with a walk? Silly question. At 6pm we were setting out in the rain to walk along the mile-long stretch of the old road past Puck's Glen. The car-park was busy with walkers preparing to leave (poor souls - they seemed to be holidaymakers, so must have paid to be here, in the wet ...).

This is where the blip comes from, just at the start of the walk. I've never really looked at the hillside at this point, but today, in the gloom, it struck me as extraordinarily tortured, as if some great force had hurled rocks around before they became entombed in moss. I love the variety of greenery on view, and that new wee tree growing on the rock, but it would be hell to climb up. By the time we'd finished our two miles we were both once again soaked. My shoes from yesterday are still drying out; now my less comfy trainers have joined them and my trousers are once more hanging from the loft ladder to dry. (I know: primitive but effective.)

And that's that. Another day in the rain. Maybe tomorrow ...?