Chilly for June ...

Why is that such a cliché? I seem to be remembering it as a password in a black and white war movie starring Richard Bogarde, which certainly wasn't yesterday... But today it was decidedly chilly, with our heating coming on full at 7am the way it does in winter and hasn't in months. I felt I got more done today than I often do - did my Italian before I was up, made a loaf, did a washing, made soup for lunch, sorted out some more old poems for putting together ... and promptly fell asleep after lunch, which was a bit of a giveaway. But at least the day didn't feel like a holiday in that I was wondering how to fill it; I can't help feeling that's such a waste of life.

I wanted to go to the shop at Benmore Gardens today, having something I needed to buy there, so we decided to walk there despite the obviously sunnier sky to the south. We drove through battering rain that swept across our route from the west, but by the time we arrived at the car park the rain had stopped and the sun come out - just as happened yesterday. We were able to get further up the gardens today - they've managed to clear much of the storm wreckage from the lower slopes, though it was all too clear where Éowyn cut a great swathe of destruction in a straight line uphill from Glen Massan and on over the top and down almost to the level of Loch Eck on the other side of the hill. There was even a squint monkey puzzle or two, leaning precariously but still perfectly shaped, as well as a positively bent one. I was appalled at how steep I found the hill - remember, this is a hill we've been accustomed to scaling almost every week one way or another - after not being able to access it for several months - but we both grunted and cursed our way to the Andean Shelter on the top and felt the better of it despite our aches and pains. By the time we'd found our way back down again (some of our usual route is still closed off and will never look the same again) we were feeling quite cheerful about it all and ready to appreciate the tranquil beauty of the pond, a view of which is the subject of today's blip. I'm going to add an extra of one of the two new wicker statues that have appeared, this time in a clearing in the woodland west of the pond.

During all this time we saw no-one apart from a red-waterproof-clad group of Edinburgh school children making their way back to the big house, and another on bikes, all within our first fifteen minutes. After that, the gardens were ours, just as in winter. 

And this evening I even managed to stay awake for the Ten O'Clock News ...