Look!

I could almost feel guilty - after all that moaning yesterday about the passing of summer without any suitable weather, about the rain - look what we got today! It wasn't sunny when I first woke, but after a second wee sleep when I should have been getting up I realised that the sun was shining on the curtains and roused myself to check out the phenomenon of the bright blue sea and an enormous cargo ship nosing up the firth. And that was it - it didn't rain all day other than about five random drops as we drove home in the afternoon. They landed on the windscreen and disappeared soon after.

I hung out a small washing after bread-making and breakfast and a phone call from my sister - I think I feel driven to make virtuous housewifely use of dry weather. I found a fat yellow slug devouring all the flowers on a sweet pea plant and killed it, along with two of its kind lurking under the hedge - killed them all with a viciousness unbecoming in a lady. Ah well... I did some yoga, and gave in at lunchtime and took paracetamol for the headache that had bugged me since I got up. 

In the afternoon we headed for the sea rather than inland - we're both suffering from gritty-feeling eyes which we associate with hay fever, despite the "low" pollen forecast. I reckon there are other irritants out there - bracken spores, maybe, or moss, or seed-heads? I don't know, but it's driving me nuts. It was glorious. If I'd had Lady Findhorn with me I'd have been in the sea for sure, but as it was I contented myself with feeling hot in shirt-sleeves and walking up the hill for a view of Arran before going out the Ardyne beside the beach.

The blip was taken at the mouth of the Ardyne Burn, where it spreads out over the sand and seaweed. I loved all the layers of blue and brown, the distant view down the Firth to the Cumbraes and, closer, Bute. I actually rang my sister, who has gone to Rothesay for a couple of days - she was sitting looking straight at where we were at the time, which I found childishly pleasing. 

And finally, a question: have any of you found that your allergies, if you have any, have been affected by (a) Covid or (b) vaccination? Answers on a postcard ... (no, no...!) And talking of allergies, I had a courteous mail today from Quorn - they've given my letter to them a case number and will report back, apparently, after further investigation. I did send them a link to a scientific site I found ... More anon.