Splashing about

On Sunday, the weather was perfect. Jo (our daughter) is visiting and we went to the beach.

Jo is recovering from glandular fever and rested on and off. I watched the sea

 In between times we paddled

We only took fruit and a hot drink with us. Half way through our apples we wished we'd taken cheese and pickle sandwiches and slabs of fruit cake!

It was the most perfect day - beautiful blue sky and a calm sea. We were so sad to learn that  just a few miles from our beach on the same day a Canadian canoe with two men and their young children had overturned.  Three of the children died and the body of one of the men has yet to be recovered.

It's almost impossible to understand what the families must be going through. I sometimes think (without wishing to appear morose) that it's a very fine line between life being ordinary and life falling apart.

Falling apart

I often come down to the loch at the bottom of the garden. A ruined cottage falls apart slowly  by the shore. It's a wonderful hotch potch of falling down things, drift wood, brambles thistles and ferns. Left to its own devises nature always wins and moves in. Outside has come inside and made itself at home. A boat abandoned by the cottage fills with grass. A tiny boat, long since forgotten, nestles in the bottom. Stones and rusty ironwork, a wooden post bleached and weathered.
Nature can also be tidy. It isn't always chaos. I've never seen such a tidy bee! The tiniest tidiest pair of wings  neatly folded in two. 

Pushing buttons and turning dials

Yesterday we had things to do in Inverness. Dentist appointments, and shopping. Driving home we stopped here

and admired the view. We ate a sandwich and a bag of sweets - me, that is. Niels had a bar of chocolate. I like those dreadful jelly snakes. I should have moved the bag from the dashboard before I took the picture! 

I had a healthy drink though!

I've spent the day playing with a new camera. One I can't understand but hopefully will get better at once I've read the manual - which I can't print off the computer until Monday afternoon when I've bought some more ink for the printer - that's another journey to Inverness, fortunately, or unfortunately, we also need  a return visit to the dentist -  no, not me, even if I can eat a whole bag of jelly snakes in one sitting.

Dear Niels is undergoing a course of treatment at the dentist.

I know I'm going to love this camera. I also  know it's very easy to make a bad picture look better by adding  lots of  out of camera effects.  But sometimes it's fun and I want to see what the camera can do on an automatic setting, while I read the manual!

I like it very much. The Olympus OM-D  - and I'll like it even more when I know what I'm doing!