under another sun

A bit of freshness in the air in the morning, thanks to being near the sea. Did business admin first thing. Then wasted time running about to local shops to get coins so that I could wash a quilt in the big washer of the local launderette. Obtaining actual cash these days is increasingly difficult.  A national emergency heat red alert for next week, with temperatures set to set an English record topping 40℃. Alarming in all kinds of ways. It will be Lorraine's last week, but it wouldn't be her last week without a national crisis to deal with. The infrastructure not designed to deal with this in the UK. I remember going to Greece once and arriving when it was 40℃, and that felt really hot. Even the locals were flaking out. But this is Blighty. In Chad it was 49℃ there, but it was such dry heat that it seemed okay.  Wrote the first draft of a poem this afternoon. Booked for next Monday for an additional day on the job Keith and I have been doing. Walked to Anton's house in my...

My office vandalised by cats this morning. The kangaroo plant on the top of a bookcase had been pulled down and emptied on the floor. Getting on with stuff including turning again to Skelton Yawngrave. For this is the year of completion. Not cutting through with as much clarity as I'd like, however. Lorraine working from home this afternoon. I spoke to Janet today, and heard from Reuben too. I may be meeting up with one of his sons Jem to discuss ghosts. Ghosts are not discussed enough. The night I saw what was to my mind unambiguously a ghost I was at university studying philosophy. It has always interested me in how nobody in the philosophy common room wanted to discuss the matter at all. I went out for a much needed walk for an hour or so. Got some keys cut in the afternoon by which time the skies had cleared and sunlight poured down from a blue sky. Lovely to be walking through the park. The sun also gleaming on the half a dozen white caravans and vans of the Travellers who...