The Handmaids (and Handmales?)

I'm indulging myself with some photos that came today from my friend Sarah, aka Mrs Bishop - not least because there was some interest in the red robes of the Cumbrae Cathedral Choir, let alone the fact that today was singularly without incident. 

Firstly, however, I have to record that the "extra hour" didn't really work: I woke at the new 6am, with the first glimmer of light in the east, and though we didn't leap immediately from bed we were too early so the only benefit we got from the clock change was that we weren't rushing to get to church.  The morning was cold and grey, the church was cold, and though we had no rain until later, it wasn't friendly to a sleep-deprived anti-climax-affected chorister. The best bit of it was that the final hymn, Amazing Grace, seemed to touch a chord in several people in the congregation with the result that there were impromptu harmonies (which worked!) and soaring final notes (they worked too) which left everyone smiling. 

By the time we got home my threshold for topping up the caffeine had been well passed (the extra hour again) and I was desperate and frozen. It took a while for me to rouse myself to get some lunch (I found some very hearty soup in the freezer) after which I kept subsiding into sleep, as the rain came on and banished any residual thought that I might go out ...

Dinner was delayed by the arrival of these photos. You can perhaps see that all we need to complete the Handmaid look is the big white hat. The benefit of them is that they are (a) warm and (b) conceal a multitude of sartorial sins; a drawback is that they constitute a hazard going down a step or two unless one clutches the front of the gown hand and lifts it up, elegantly or otherwise. Today's game is spotting Blethers (that's me) and Himself ... And I've added an extra of me and my favourite bishop, just because...

Having achieved little else other than an embryonic watercolour and a long chat on the phone to Chis, the organiser of yesterday, I made dinner (duck breast and roast potatoes) and was horrified to find by the time we'd finished that it was almost 10pm. 

My sense of time may never recover.