Red ferry in the gloom

It wasn't cold this afternoon, nor was there a wind. The rain had stopped. There was even a scrap of blue sky. But suddenly it felt as if winter was near. It's the light - even at 4.30 in the afternoon, a time we've often found ourselves setting out over the summer and early autumn, it was clearly not going to remain light for long.

That's why I took this photo at the start of our walk - Kilmun shore, with one of the Western Ferries tied up at the pier and a few sailing boats still at anchor in the Holy Loch. The only sound was of timber being loaded onto a cargo boat on the Sandbank shore - a far cry from the days when the loch was full of US Navy submarines, the dry dock and the mother ship, and there was never silence.

By the time we returned to the car, having walked to Strone and back and had a conversation with a couple feeding a swan which had been waiting for it at the foot of the steps to the beach, the street lights were on and it was almost dark.

And tomorrow it'll be winter right enough.