The day started quite cold, after an overnight frost with minimum temps of -2C / 28F. Even as late as 11 am, the puddles in the streets were still frozen. Went off to buy a few things in the morning, and spent the afternoon reading and finishing books. I finally made it through Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky, which is a treatise in psychology. I also breezed through the 40 pages of Paladins of Shannara by Terry Brooks. The latter author has been a favourite of mine for more than 25 years, but this short story was a disappointment. Mr Brooks appears to have become confused with the sequence of events in the Shannara series, and showed a lamentable lack of originality. He should not have bothered.
South Beach (L) and Free Church (R), Stornoway
