From the mists ...

You know, I look at the blips of friends in other places - California, Fife, Edinburgh, England - and I see blue sky, sunshine, colour. And here I'm beginning to feel as if I'll never walk about in the sunshine again. We may not be drowning in mud slides or floods, but there have been trees blown down, bits of wall washed off (that's our gatepost I'm thinking of, the render lying in the street) and above it all this incessant grey, or pale blue swept over by misty cloud ... 

I decided none the less that I needed a bit more of a walk than I felt like today and met my bestie up Glen Massan, reflecting that a week ago we shared that other drookit walk up Faceplant Road. As I drove down into Sandbank I realised that I couldn't actually see Glen Massan or its surrounding hills at all - they were completely hidden by low cloud, mist, rain. As we marched up the road, completely on our own apart from two small dogs that my pal is dogsitting, the roar of the river in the gorge to our left became so loud that we could have had an entire tank regiment behind us and we'd not have heard it.

So that's my photo for today. I'm quite proud of it, and quite proud of the muddy scramble down to the water's edge to take it (and no, we didn't fall in, though my bestie has form in that direction). The power of the water is utterly seductive and quite terrifying. By the time we got back to our cars we were both soaked, but we'd had a good blether (again) and shared the various aches that we hope to assuage in some warm weather, sooner than later ...

My extra is triumphant. The marmalade over which I despaired last week has indeed set - not too stiff, not too sweet, just right. Real Goldilocks marmalade, had she gone for that breakfast option. Last night I ate a great slice of toast to celebrate the opening of the first tiny jar which was the last I filled, and I have ten full-size jars to look forward to. Only rejoice!