All over till the next time ...

Traditionally, the Cowal Games (or Cowal Highland Gathering, if you prefer) ends with a firework display on the Coal Pier. We have a grandstand view from our house - I was too idle to go upstairs, so this one was taken through the open downstairs window; Himself had rather more splendid ones from upstairs. When we first moved to this house and I had first one and then two small children, I used to be furious because the noise invariably woke the baby; later the boys would have been down in Argyll Street with me to watch the bands' march-past and would still be up when the fireworks began. 

I have lived too long within earshot of all this, so even although the Games celebrations in the town are much diminished from what they were - the bands no longer march playing up to the Stadium from an early hour, and the return is a much less noisy, drunken affair - I tend to keep well away from it all. So I spent this morning dealing with sorting out my toilet bag for a decent holiday as opposed to a couple of days at a son's, or in a hotel for a night. It's shocking how long this took me - standing there fishing in corners for inter-dental brushes and mouthwash and so on. 

It was amazingly a lovely day, so we had not only coffee but also lunch in the garden, after which I cut back some overgrown and withering plants from the path. Then, as the garden was no longer peaceful, we drove out of town to Blairmore, left the car in Di's garden , and walked to the end of the village and back. It was peaceful and lovely and I'm going to stick on an extra by way of illustration; I may have to remove it some day to make room for more...

Apart from that, I spent a lot of time on Facebook catching up with photos from Wednesday as well as a wonderful selection marking the retirement of Bishop Kevin, a selection to which I had contributed several photos from the past when we were all a quarter of a century younger. The result of all this is that it's now past midnight and we have work to do in the morning... I'm off.

'night!