Lone swimmer

I put my swimming kit on today, but thought better of actually going in when I got to the Port to meet H and L. L has to go in. It's Day 361 of her 365. She is not going to break her streak now (she even went in Loch Aye at one point during the October storms....) And much to my surprise, she didn't just go in and immerse her shoulders (the definition of a "dip" for these purposes), or sit down in the shallows, but she actually went quite a long way and swam around a bit before beating a retreat. Pretty impressive. Swimming at Shandwick was completely out (easterly wind and easterly facing beach), but even at the Port the tide was stupidly high and I would have been worried about undertow. So I contented myself with being part of the support team with H, taking some photos and video to save L the bother of doing it, and then coming back to use the spinning bike to get my exercise.

Later on, we had a visit from K's husband D, who is a surveyor, to look at some of the insulation issues here. It was useful to talk to him. It helps us to create a set of priorities.

Meanwhile, the water cascaded out of the sky, it was very windy until mid afternoon, and people on the A9 ended up completely stuck in their cars, because of snow at Drumochter and flooding at Ballinluig. We've already started considering which of the days of the weekend after next might be the best for taking the A9 south. It's not looking obvious.

So it's another evening of quiet contemplation of books. I tried reading Julia, which Mr A had read and found interesting, but I decided after 100 pages it was not for me. I listened to a podcast about Mary Lawson's Crow Lake, which I read in the last few days. She said something that is very true for me, when I read novels just for release (especially at this time of the year). I have to like what I read - the characters, what's happening to them, the overall setting. And she said it was important to her that she liked what she wrote. I think that's why I find reading her novels like taking a comforting warm bath. It's not maybe what I want to read all year round, but it certainly works for this time of year.