Nature's sculpture

A quiet, peaceful day. No rush to go anywhere, we even watched most of a BBC round-up of 2014 events in the UK on the television before finally setting out for the hills. Little traffic made for a tranquil journey and we stopped at an almost deserted golf club for lunch. We always enjoy seeing Valerio, the barman and one of the club's greatest assets.

Back home, to be reunited with Kayla, our big, black, crazy dog. I took her for a walk and got a few shots of her bathing in the stream, but she didn't think I'd caught her best profile, and asked me not to post any of them.

We've just finished watching the ultimate sobering film, Hotel Ruanda. How can humans be so brutal? And yet, 'brutal' derives from brute - animalesque - and humans are so much worse than animals.