Avenue

Something quite remarkable happened on Thursday: I had coffee and a real face-to-face conversation with one of my friends. It's not that I don't value my frequent catch-ups by phone and virtual meet-ups with friends via Facetime, Zoom and suchlike - I do really appreciate these and would be lost without them - but there's something wonderful about actually being with, and spending time, with one of one's friends. The fact that it was about ten days since I last had a proper face-to-face conversation with anyone (apart from chatting to shop assistants, etc) made it all the more enjoyable.

In truth, our coffee and chat experience doubled up as a meeting to plan how our church will celebrate Christmas in these challenging times - the person across the table as we met at a local garden centre was our parish minister. Various ideas and suggestions were bandied about and we both left with avenues to explore further. However, it was far from being an 'all work and no play' session, as our conversation ranged far and wide and only some of it was church-related.

With the world put to rights (as if!) we went our separate ways and I drove over to Carronshore for a wander along The Avenue, alongside the River Carron, where today's Blip was taken. I hadn't been walking long before the rain started to come down in earnest. Seems to be a pattern these days.