A day of ... skies

The first thing I did this morning (after drinking a mug of tea) was to leap stagger over to the window to take photos of the sky, and I thought that even if the rest of the day provided nothing visual I could always bore Blippers rigid with yet another sunrise ... but actually it's been a day blessed with interesting cloudscapes, at least in the afternoon, when the morning's bright sun was replaced by a variety of sculptured clouds, linear and tumultuous and bringing some faint drizzle and an almost-rainbow. And then the one I've used above, at the end of the afternoon, with that wonderful outburst of flame already gone from the sky over the mouth of the river.

Not that I spent the day cloud-gazing. I was out bright and early for my lift to Pilates, and could stand, shivering only slightly, on the roadside waiting without getting either wet or frozen. Pilates was ... stretching, but we had such laughs before we all became too immersed in keeping breathing; it's such good therapy for the mood as well as the muscles. And then I sat down at home with my coffee and one delicious Arabian date and read the  paper.

After lunch, and for once before it was too late, we went out, promising ourselves a short walk just to prevent us from stiffening up. The beach road along the Ardyne is a walk of 1.25 miles in toto and seemed just right, with Arran vanished below a flump of cloud on the one hand and the hills disappearing behind what turned out to be a passing shower of the finest drizzle, adorned with a quarter-rainbow. 

I think I could have done more useful, practical things with today, but instead I've allowed my brain to have some fun, so I've entered discussions about poems, politics, and Palestine - and I've learned a great deal about the last, much of which I suspected already. And before I came upstairs (ostensibly to bed) I was out in the garden taking photos of the stars. They're amazing - have you had a look tonight?