Blue sky and frosting

Today began with my falling asleep after my early tea - again - and not getting up until 9am was striking. Very dozy indeed. My pal Di texted me while I was still asleep, as a result of which I stirred myself to be in a position to invite her for coffee and a bit of Himself's birthday cake - the utterly delicious chewy chocolate cake provided by d-i-l Mary. Thus sustained, the pair of us left Himself making a batch cook of curry and headed out into the blue frostiness of the late morning sunshine. Fifteen minutes' walk from my house took us to the entrance of the Bishop's Glen, where our water supply used to come from when we first lived here. There were portacabins in the parking area and fences and signs of Something Going On, but it didn't get in our way and we climbed the road into the glen and up to the blue paradise of the loch. 

The main photo in the collage and the top right hand one were both taken from the same place, looking each way; in the bigger one you can see two gulls on open water, but the nearer area of water and the reflective surface in the smaller one is ice, presumably because the burn enters the loch and keeps the top end free of ice. The other two views are from the beach at the head of the loch; it was crunchy with miraculously detailed frost, which clung to the gorse and the trees in this bit which gets no sun in the winter.

We both felt amazingly privileged to have this place to potter round; in more energetic/less icy times we'd have gone further to the top bridge above the gorge where the upper reservoir used to be, but today we just crunched round the orginal loch and down again. By this time the workmen had returned to their portacabin, presumably for their lunch, and we chatted each other up in the absurd way that feels fine for old ladies to indulge in - made us laugh anyway. 

I reckon I really wasted the rest of the day - we did without lunch, as a mug of tea seemed all we wanted, before Himself went out for something electrical (I think) and I attempted to improve my Italian standing for this week. I also booked a night in the airport hotel at Glasgow for our holiday - it's only a month away now.. 

We had our nightly battle to light the front room gas fire before dinner - there is such a blast of cold air down the chimney that it seems to stop the gas reaching the spark or whatever, so that we end up having to sit a radiant heater almost up the chimney to counteract it with a rising current of air. It's lovely when it lights, but it's beyond a joke on a cold evening. 

We ended the day with the last of the champagne (we have one of these fancy stoppers) and Himself's fab curry, followed by total collapse as usual. They say it'll start being milder tomorrow ...