Breakfast at the Bean again yesterday, but I restricted myself to a doughnut. The forecast was for a grey, damp morning with sun in the afternoon; so we walked up to Larks Gallery and had a chat with the sitter, resisting temptation on the whole – though if we’d been coming home by car I might well have bought a picture.
After buying a loaf and having lunch at home, we headed for Glen Muick. But the weather was not as forecast: there was very low cloud and a chilly wind. After a bit of shilly-shallying, during which I walked down to the river, we drove back to the junction with tthe Birkhall road, which was blocked off.
We decided to walk down it a bit and had only gone a hundred yards or so when to our surprise we found that the river had washed away a whole chunk of road – just as had happened on the A93, but this wasn’t the mighty Dee, just the Waters of Muick, flowing out of the Loch. We walked a bit further, finding that the actual bridge had survived – just.
As the weather seemed to be improving we drove on to Cambus o’ May, where the sun came out and it was really warm by the (still broken) suspension bridge. So warm, in fact, that Dot did some sunbathing, until a woman with a dog came along, the dog went into the river and then shook itself in her vicinity.
We drove back in time to watch Scotland v England, which ended 2-2 after Scotland threw it away in the dying seconds. We then tried to get into the Deeside Inn for supper, but they were full; so we went round the corner to the Alexandra Hotel, which is unprepossessing (bar, not restaurant) and I had a steak, which was excellent. Back at the house we watched a very good rugby game (England v Argentina) and then England beating Australia at cricket. Australia were thus knocked out of the Champions Trophy without ever having a complete game. No result at all in two of the three. Doesn’t seem fair, somehow.
Today we went to church again and found Jenny, our landlady, in the next pew. What are the odds? Afterwards we went to see Ella, who has rented a house in the next road. After a cup of tea we all went to the Brown Sugar cafe, where I had an egg sandwich, then back to Ella’s for a glass of wine.