under another sun

A day when nothing much had to be done. More peeling wallpaper from the bathroom today, which was good. Amanda had told Lorraine the best way to do it was to strip off the top layer, and then went the underlayer. It simply peeled off without damaging the plaster. Next step is taping it up prior to painting it with undercoat. No Laura, Braheem and baby today, as the wee thing is still ill. Emails with Charlotte today about her and SJB's the Understory Conversation. I am going to join if I can.  Roast chicken dinner tonight. Happy to be in out of the cold tonight. Talked to the Tobster for quite a while this evening, who told me about their adventures in Japan, luckily on the opposite coast from earthquakes, tsunamis, and so on. He sent me a snap of him and Romy and Momoyo taken today. Watched Barbie the movie tonight, or I watched the first half and was so tired, at 9:45 that I simply went to bed. Lorraine followed shortly after.

Sunny at first, with the bloody seagull tapping on the kitchen door again. I leant out of the window and photographed it doing so. But the big thing today was... Rain. Rain at last falling on Seaford this afternoon, and fairly heavily too. We had a garden morning, potting up tomatoes, chilies and so on.  Lorraine drove some cardboard off to the nearby recycling, and I floated about in the back garden for a few minutes just soaking up (ahem) the experience of rain. Petrichor, I learned recently, is the word for the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after long heat. And there was a sense of the garden sighing with relief. The fish pond, which had been making me feel anxious because its level was so low, despite sneaking buckets of water into it, was replenished by a good amount too.  Was contacted by an old school friend today, Peter Hoibak, out of the blue for the first time in over forty years -- via his wife's linked in account. A pleasant surprise. I guess we ar...