At Kinloss Abbey.

Another great day - with a mission. The intent was to cycle to Findhorn and get a blip from there (since it was Lady Findhorn who introduced me to Blip many years ago) but, the best laid plans, and all that sort of thing; it was never going to be more than a flying visit as I needed to get back to the B&B in time for the evening meal. The community there has an organic cafe which meant that, while the soup was undoubtedly wholesome and nutritious, it did not really taste of anything interesting. However, the latte was superb; the girl asked me how strong I liked it and, when it arrived, it was hot, and tasted of coffee rather than diluted milk. There was a family there who were feeding the birds, but were displaying prejudice against a poor herring gull who was repeatedly driven away whenever he tried to get his share.

Apart from that it was a day of stumbling across some pleasant surprises and some upsetting ones. The first was a memorial to the Land Girls of the Second World War. It is a statue of a group of girls on a five bar gate and appears to be untreated iron; it is a rust red colour and will probably slowly corrode over the years or, maybe, it is preserved and will maintain its appearance. Whichever is true, it is a noble piece of work created in a noble cause.

Then there was the Kinloss Abbey ruins, dating back to 1150 and in use for 400 years by the Cistercian monks. The graveyard has been used a lot in recent years and a significant area is given over to Commonwealth war graves. There appear to be nearly two hundred dating from the start of The Second World War, and elsewhere there is just one from The Great War. I found it particularly sad that there are so many very recent war graves. The abbey itself is a wonderful piece of historical architecture and worthy of a visit in its own right.

Not far away, I was on a cycle path and narrowly missed running over a little brown bird on the ground; I went back to investigate, expecting to find an illusion created by a dead leaf but it was a sparrow of the tree or hedge variety. I picked it up and put it in a safer place but, although it appeared uninjured, the fact that I was able to do so makes me doubt if it lived much longer.