Multi-faceted

Today has felt stupidly busy though nothing major was achieved and I forgot to cook the rhubarb despite leaving it on the worktop to remind me - most annoying. It was a misty morning, but gradually became quite sunny and warm for a bit around midday before the first rain in over a week fell in the late afternoon. 

My first outing was immediately after breakfast to get blood taken for testing - it's been just over a year since I had it done after the rising sugar levels the year before, but having had a satisfactory reading in December 23 I sort of forgot about it ... I came straight home and did my Italian, with the app still looking as I expected and the promise of triple points later in the day (Sally will get this) - but by the time I went to do my evening practice things had changed for the worse and made my customary icons harder to find and the triple points option a thing of the past. Not happy - and what's with the alarming lightning streaks? (Oh - maybe "streaks" gives it away ...)

Himself came and went - church, petrol, ferry tickets - while I found myself tempted to attack, briefly, the weigela that pokes me in the shoulder every time I pass it on the way to the back gate. The long-handled loppers dealt with the high stuff and the pruning saw removed a whole mini-trunk of something that's been there so long it's almost stopped producing any new growth (a satisfying if hand-shattering job). Inflamed with success, I moved on to some more overgrown things ... now it's all got to go to the tip.

After lunch one of our sopranos came round to rehearse an anthem and some hymns for the Collation (which I'm still calling an Institution in my head), which we did in the house and then finished off in the church because it's always lovely to sing in. When she left for home, we drove down for a walk along the Ardyne road in the first drops of rain which happily didn't come to much as I'd foolishly believed the forecast that it wouldn't rain till later and hadn't put on a jacket. I took the above photo as we finished - I like this wee boat tied up at the pier in the harbour, with Rothesay looking amazingly clear beyond it. You wouldn't think that from where I stood it would take at least 90 minutes to get to Rothesay by the quickest route ...

An odd thing happened on the road home. We were driving past a bit of wooded land just past the road to the lighthouse when I was seized by a sort of dread just because of the way the trees looked - they're untended, with thick growth and trunks twined with ivy stems and bits of fallen tree on the ground. Perhaps it was the thought of trying to tame them - though why? they're nothing to do with me - but whatever it was left me feeling physically afraid for several miles on up the road in the gathering greyness. Timor mortis conturbat me?


Home to a phone call from our tenor about a possible gig in August, a glass of wine, a great curry - normality restored!