Small and delicate

After listening to all the advice, I decided to use common sense about walking today. My car needed to have the engine turned over and I worked out a short walk which was partly on a quiet road and partly on a railway embankment. I knew there were no sheep and no gates to negotiate. I drove for 7 minutes to get there.

It was a cold, grey morning, but I enjoyed the outing. I photographed a few wildflowers. The lesser celandine are tricky to photograph in the sun. They sparkle but the highlights on the petals blow.

Here I found the first flower on a tiny alpine strawberry by a wall near Chipchase Castle. I like the lichens on the wall behind. I saw banks of primroses and the wild daffodils are still in flower. Pussy willow is dripping with pollen. I have rarely enjoyed Spring as much as this year. It feels very precious.

This afternoon, I played our piano. I haven't played for months and felt very rusty, but a lot of tunes fall under the fingers fairly well.

Our vicar has lost his battle with a brain tumour. It was well advanced by the time of diagnosis. I'm glad that his wife was with him, but his family could not be. There will be a memorial service later in the year.

We missed the first part of the news briefing tonight. I think that a regular slot would be good.

Last Saturday, I showed you an image I made for our photo group's weekly challenge. Today we had to process an image from our back catalogue. I chose a seascale from the Isle of Harris in November. I'd not touched it because it had a big fleck of dirt on the sensor and didn't look very promising. I was delighted with the finished result. It was fun to see everyone else's images too.

Now wondering what the next challenge will be.