Frosty

Another night when I found it hard to get to sleep meant I treated myself to remaining in bed for an hour more than usual, so that by the time I was up the sun had risen on the small children hurrying along the Crescent to school, and I remembered the days of getting the pram down the 17 steps to the street to accompany my not-yet- 5 year old to the same school ...

I seemed to take ages to do simple things this morning - though I did hang out a washing (it did dry a bit!) and made bread and poached some pears for pudding as well as the normal tidying up. Then, however, the sun reappeared and called to me ... and so we went for a lunchtime walk in Benmore Gardens, when the light is at its best in the winter and the frost still lay on the grass where the sun didn't reach (see extra.) The photo above isn't actually in the gardens, but was taken from the bridge across the Eachaig that we all have to use now to access the Gardens, since the footbridge that was wrecked by a floating caravan in the floods of over a year ago has still not been repaired. The sheep must be hardier than than the cattle, now all safely indoors - the temperature was 1ºc by this time. The extra was taken as we came down the hill, and shows the one-time formal garden with Puck's hut that used to be in the forest across the main road. The frost on the grass and, a little further on, the ice on the lake, show how no sun shines to the foot of the glen in the winter.

We were out again later, to choir, coming back under the moon which had just been rising as we left the house. I can't resist adding another extra of that, though I may rue this squandering of extras before the year is out...

I have put on the convector in our bedroom until I'm safely in bed.