Not quite super, not quite blue ...

I thought there was a pleasing symmetry in following yesterday's sunrise photo with one of the moon, now beginning to wane and lose its double-barrelled name but rather magnificent all the same. No old ladies were harmed hanging out the window to take this ...

A lovely day, and for me a very quiet day after a disturbed night involving suffering from something I'd eaten and a very, very large spider. Nuff said. I didn't stir further than the garden after finally getting up rather spectacularly late. 

But to complete my comparison of city life with small town life, with particular reference to living easily in one's declining years, I thought I'd draw a few examples of why, if you don't mind being cut off from the delights of the Central Belt, there are many advantages to being here...

Where I live, fantastic views and all, I am within seven minutes' walk from the bigger supermarket, several pharmacies and the doctor's surgery (for now - that may change). The dentist is more like 15 minutes' walk, as is the Co-op. The hospital I can reach in 20 minutes on foot if I'm brisk (you can deduce from this that I've sometimes had to get a move on for an appointment). And as I have found in recent years, people know us - we taught half the town, as a cheerful paramedic assured me a month ago. Friends are more scattered - one lot are only a few houses away from us, while others, like Di, are a 15 minute drive round the coast. The only time I've used buses here was when there were some useful ones that actually went on the Western Ferries and all the way to Glasgow; they were taken off by McGill's and now we have to pick them up at either ferry terminal. 

Many of my favourite walks require a drive out of town - if I'm still granted the use of my pins when I can no longer drive (though there are many older drivers in these parts) I shall spend what's left of the kids' inheritance on taxis ...

Of course, sheer boredom and wanting more family contact (poor them!) might persuade us to move - except that having lived here for the best part of half a century we've fallen so far down the housing scale that we couldn't afford anywhere we'd like to live. 

So that's it. We're not about to leave ...