Past the 10,000

A few things about this post. First, it's teatime, not bedtime. I have a minute or two before I make dinner and I'm using it instead of doom-scrolling. Second, I've just taken some reasonable photos in Glen Massan, but I felt that this gleaming morning deserved an outing - the bright water, the streamers of cloud, the seagulls ... And thirdly, the title - because that walk up Glen Massan always was one for the 10,000 step obsession back when I used a FitBit rather than my watch. In fact I've walked four miles this afternoon, half of it steeply uphill, and I'm feeling ... worn? More anon.

I spent the Ides of March doing sensibly useful things like washing and hanging out all the towels (carefully balancing the load on the broken whirligig) in the hot sun which almost persuaded me that it was warm enough to sit outside at our back door, and making bread. I didn't go around declaring "Beware", though I did post it in Latin on Facebook , just for fun. But we have enough doom in the world without making a special day to warn everyone, do we not? 

And after lunch we went for this walk up the steep road into the hanging valley of Glen Massan. I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it as far as the foot of the steep bit, but somehow we pressed on and found ourselves beside the tree where the road dips down into the hollow of the upper glen. We saw the destruction of the storm all the way up - what a job it must've been to clear the road immediately afterwards. I'm glad we did this walk, but I'm truly tired now and aching in the generalised way which makes me not know where to put myself. Is this all part of the ageing process, suddenly brought home? I don't approve! One thing I have decided: I'm not taking any more fancy pills for nerve pain - the ones I've been on for a few days make me so dopey I can barely function, and that's not me. And they don't stop me waking at 4am ...

So here I am in the study, looking out at the same view as above only differently lit. There are lines of grey cloud making edges to the pink of the higher clouds, and the rest of the sky is a greenish-blue. The sea is dead calm and the tide is out. I'm going to have my dinner and then watch the rugby and hope it doesn't give me indigestion!