Caught out ...

Routine re-established itself further today with the weekly early shop that I've avoided for the past two weeks. It meant, of course, that I spent a small fortune - the larder, especially the freezer, has been getting alarmingly bare - and took ages, partly because Morrison's had seen fit to rearrange some of its shelves in my absence. However, by the time I arrived at the checkout (there are only two functioning at that hour, with everyone else expected to self-checkout) and had to join a queue, I had been seized by a sort of wild hilarity, and ended up sharing the mood with the wee woman in front of me. I commented on the mountain of shopping she was supervising while her companion, whom I took to be her husband, shovelled it into bags. "Nice wee shopping you got there," I remarked. "I only came in for cat food!" she replied, and for some reason we both collapsed in tucks of laughter. Somehow within the next couple of sentences we learned we were much the same age, and it was at that point that the husband-who-wasn't looked up and said, "Mum, she was my teacher..." More hysteria. I could actually remember his name when he told me, but not the stubble-covered face and greying hair. It's fairly coming to it when one's FPs are so venerable. By the time I left I had tears of mirth blurring my vision. 

The rest of the day was less cheery. It grew quite gloomy, and Himself was wrestling with a travel agent on the phone. I felt like falling asleep, and everything seemed to hurt - legs, ankle, thumb joints ... Does weather affect arthritis? We decided that sitting around wasn't the answer and went out, waterproofs and all. I was fed up going to Toward for walks, weather or no, so we ended up going some way along Loch Eck-side. We were still skirting Benmore Gardens when the heavens opened and we spent some time sheltering under a huge tree. That was when I felt I could get my phone out, so today we have a photo of ... rain.

Very appropriate. 

The sun came out just as we arrived home. At least I had seen one red squirrel.