under another sun

A quiet day, trying to get to grips with the French work. By usual stream of brilliant ideas seems to have dried up, and progress is sluggish. Bah. Great to be at home though. Had coffee in the garden with Lorraine. Overcast and warm. Making plans for the garden. Looking at our tree still heavy with plums and discussing making jam. Noticed quite a large frog in our bucket pond. Nice to know that the cats hadn't thinned them all out completely. Lorraine out this afternoon, shopping and to see a pal and coo at her new baby. I spoke to Mum, and texted Toby late in the afternoon. Happy when Lorraine came home, which was my signal to gratefully stop work, and spend quality time with my lovely wife. We watched a Mark Kermode documentary about how Horror films work, which was fun. Lorraine made it through to the end, not being great at horror. Below a frog in a bucket pond.

Up fairly fresh, despite Calliope's best efforts. She managed to get out onto the roof in the night, and yowled through the velux windows till I got up and rescued her. As a thank you she went into he garden, and returned shortly after with a live frog which when I got out of bed to deal with it, it jumped wetly on my foot forcing me to yelp like the heroine of a Victorian melodrama. As the plumbing was coming to some kind of culmination. Toby and I suck to home for the morning and early afternoon. We sat outside drinking coffee and chatting. And when it was too sunny to sit outside, being the hottest day in recorded history, or something like it, we came inside where the plumber insisted on putting the radiators on to test the new radiator in the bathroom. Eventually the plumbing stopped with promises to actually finish it tomorrow. I till believe it when I see it. Toby and I free then to go for a walk, into Preston Park, and it was seriously warm. Mooching about chatting abou...

While writing today, I skilfully make quite promising things much worse till I stopped. I am feeling stale, and easily put off my stroke. Tom came this morning, and went straight to sleep in the spare room. Luckily there was no crashing today, but the bathroom saga continues, plumbers on the phone suggesting a plastic shower tray, and talked me into this. By the end of the day, and talking this over with Lorraine and the internet, it was clear I'd made the wrong decision, so will have to reverse this tomorrow. Walked to Hove this afternoon, to call on Janet and Ken. Janet is feeling down for several understandable reasons, not least the recent death of her sister. She has seen the doctor recently too, who has suggested a scan on her liver. We ate the chocolate walnut brownies and chatted, and then went up a ladder to peer at various smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and track down one that was beeping, which (with my usual DIY talents) fell out of the ceiling Rawlplugs and all a...

A day to get on with things. Clem building new bespoke decking outside. I am in deep admiration of his practical ability, and the way he carries the entire project in 3D in his head. Occasionally I help him carry something, or have a chat about preferences. Having him here is not entirely brilliant for my own work as I increasingly need to feel insulated from everyone to think best. A chat with what may be a new client for me this morning, Pat Norrie put us in touch. Then simply staring at my list and trying to think clearly about next steps until I made off to the gym in the afternoon, for another mild-mannered cross training session. After Lorraine got home, we went for a walk in the park together, pausing over the pond in Preston Park which is squiggling with newts, tadpoles, and baby frogs swarming about on patches of algae on the surface. This made us both happy, and Lorraine could barely tear herself away. Have started reading Genesis again in the King James version. It is ...

And on with work today for my French clients. This week I will mainly be working on bovine mastitis. And I'm pleased to be getting on with it. Rather manacled to the desk though, however when Lorraine came home we went for a nice walk about in the park, across the green where a few people were having outdoor barbecues, and through the beautiful area planted with meadow plants. Pausing by the pond by the cafe next to the rose garden to look in the newty, froggy pool. Tiny frogs skipping about, and we stopped to watch one progress by the side of the pool in little ant-dodging leaps for a while. This, curiously, was one of the enjoyable hightlights of the day.