It's still March ...

We could have been fooled these past few days - wall-to-wall sunshine, shirt-sleeve walks, G&T in the garden before dinner - but today brought the reality check. It's still March, the clocks only changed a couple of days ago, and it was positively chilly as an east wind blew across the grey firth and in at my bedroom window.

But by early afternoon there was some brightness, a slight hint of blue behind the grey, and for a little while the temperature rose from 6ºC to 13º. It wasn't really warm enough for sitting on the beach, but we did take a moment on the Ardyne shore to contemplate the river, the islands we could barely see in the mist, and listen to the plaintive calls of oyster-catchers.