Cloistered?

It's been a pleasant day, really - quite a lot of sun, so that looking out at the patio I began to think of pruning the roses - but now, at 11.30pm, the rain is washing down the study windows and there seems to be a wind that I wasn't previously aware of, though I don't think the night is as cold as the last two. I didn't really do enough with the day, I fear - I let the morning slip by, not even starting to make bread for tomorrow's breakfast until after coffee, and I had to do my Italian then as I'd been too sleepy to do some before I got up. I did order a present for someone ... and a book, for myself, from the Guardian bookshop after reading an extract from it in the paper: Cloistered, by Catherine Coldstream. Anyone read it? I was very taken by what I read. 

By the time the afternoon had started to slide away too, I galvanised myself to go out before the sun vanished, so we went to Glen Massan and walked up the gorge, as usual, to the hanging valley above. We were in sun for the first part, though by the time we turned to come down again it had slid behind the hills. The photo above shows where the road passes the perimeter fence of Benmore Gardens, and I like the way the sun is slanting picturesquely down the road - and then you look up, in the photo and in reality, and see the broken top of the tall tree on the left and realise that there are still many signs of the storm devastation from the winter winds and rain. 

On the walk we were discussing the news, and the attitude to news found among people we know as well as in the country at large. The family journo says that people in general are no longer interested in news, and especially not serious news, which is why GB News now dominates in certain sectors' viewing habits (I've never had it on - don't even know where to find it in the listings; it's as if it's a poison I don't want to sully myself with) and why there is such a decline in the sales of newspapers. I realise I'm obsessed with news: I don't know when I got to the stage that I'd feel as if I'd missed a dose of medication if I'd not seen some in a day. But how can people make judgements, say, about their own elected government if they don't know what's happening, what they're up to? 

Right. Off the soapbox and into the shower. Night!