Spot the new arrival

The rain went away again today - I got sheets and clothes dried outside without mishap, and though we saw showers falling to the north and west of us, we were amazingly untouched. I'm glad - yesterday's torrent were enough for me for a bit. I got the washing done first thing in the morning, because I'd arranged to go down to Paddy's to have my little painting put in the frame she'd kindly ordered from me - and as an added bonus she swiftly and expertly put it all together in about a quarter of the time it'd have taken me. I'm very pleased with the way the frame enhances the painting, and with the place I've chosen for it on my dining room wall ... I'll not be doing this for everything I paint, but it was after all my first in a long time. I've added an extra close-up of it, though the photo makes the colours rather less subtle than they appear to the naked eye.

My other extra comes from a lovely late afternoon walk at Toward (we checked where the sky looked clearest, and chose well). We've never seen a cruise ship anchored off Rothesay before, though friends we met told us they'd seen one last week. It looked startlingly large in this familiar context, despite the fact that it's not one of the truly enormous ones. (The vessel BOREALIS (IMO: 9122552, MMSI 311000987) is a Passenger (Cruise) Ship built in 1997 (25 years old) and currently sailing under the flag of Bahamas.) We suddenly heard the sound of an onboard announcement as we walked, and when we stopped to look we realised she was turning and leaving port, so it was rather interesting to watch her sailing south past Cumbrae and becoming just another ship on the Firth.

By the time we got home I was absolutely starving, and was amazed that I lasted long enough to marinade (briefly) a couple of lamb chops in rose petals and spices as well as fry sliced cauliflower - a new recipe for me. For so long I've been used to the idea that Brits boil every vegetable into boredom, but my recent discovery of oven cooking or frying has opened up a whole new world ...

Enough. This is turning into a cliché. But wasn't that debate between Sunak (which auto-correct wrote first as "Sunk") and Truss cringingly awful?