All this and heaven too

This photo, taken before breakfast this morning, seems a suitably magical one to represent a day stolen from normal life. By some wonderful chance, the current spell of fine weather (shhh) coincided with an invitation to spend a night in a holiday house at Cairnbaan, on the Crinan Canal. Yesterday we drove there in a morning full of sun, walked along the canal path to Crinan, with a picnic by the water en route and a coffee by the harbour when we arrived, and walked back in the evening light to a hot shower and dinner in the Cairnbaan Hotel. Ten miles in the sun makes for great sleep, and the evening was unlike those I spend at home. For one thing, I had no computer with me.

But this morning was amazing. The night had been totally clear and cold enough for winter, so that when the sun rose it was to show us the canal steaming as if it was an enormous hot bath. I shall post more pics of it when I've finished doing my Roman ones, but this, of the steaming water round the boat and the cloud in the hollow beyond, will suffice as today's glimpse of heaven.

And tomorrow? The SECC for the Scottish Learning Festival - and TeachMeet08. From the sublime ...