Looking upwards ...

Do you remember a hymn from your childhood that began (I think) with the words: Looking upwards every day, sunshine on our faces ...? I can hum the tune now, even though it must be 70 years since I last sang it. But my photo today came early on, as I was standing in the road at the end of our lane waiting for a kind member of my Pilates class to pick me up so that Himself could have our car and thereby get to his class when he finished with an appointment at the surgery. I was standing there with my rolled-up mat and my inappropriate leggings wondering what kind of car I was looking for (not that many pass at that time) and suddenly noticed the fabulousness overhead, and although the afternoon walk in Benmore Gardens brought lots of photos of pink rhododendrons bursting into bloom I thought the sky more unusual.

Pilates, strenuous as ever, actually had me take my jersey off and ask for the heater to go off - the teacher commented that her life's work was done, as I'm a notorious cold fish. It's the elbow planks wot does it ... And afterwards I felt stretched and righteously tired and enjoyed my coffee to the utmost.

The afternoon saw us, as I said, climb up through the gardens to sit in the Andean Refuge and listen to the silence. With so much evil abroad in the world, it seems almost an unpardonable luxury to be able to enjoy such peacefulness. I was reminded of this again when I got home; I rang the bank to discuss moving an account to one with better interest and talked to a jolly and pleasant woman in Wolverhampton (working for the Bank of Scotland ...) who thought where I lived sounded infinitely preferable, even if they had closed the BoS branch here.

And that was that, except for the part I played in an increasingly rancorous exchange on social media about the horror being played out in Gaza. I'm going to take a positive from it, however: it taught me that there are some wonderfully articulate, sane, good people willing to stand against the vicious hate-speech that suddenly bursts into a dialogue, and for that I am grateful.

And I'm grateful, as ever, for the people whom I found in this community of Blip. Goodnight, all ...