under another sun

Up shortly after Lorraine this morning, and on with the day picking up the threads from a couple of weeks ago. I also went for a brisk walk for about an hour or so. Being back in Guernsey has reminded me of the outside world. In fact in the afternoon I took my laptop outside and sat under the lilac tree, still managing to get reception from the wifi. Lots of stuff going on in a garden if you simply sit quietly for long enough. The cats sitting either side of my feet. Then an interesting stand off. Brian went onto a wall right next to me, and on the other side of it was a small fox. Brian stared it down in a surprising show of toughness. Not that I did much, and I found myself a bit devoid of inspiration and in need of a down day. Beth off this afternoon teaching, an when she returned we sat about in the garden noticing stuff like an enormous green beetle, a ball of tiny yellow spiders and so on not to mention the various flowers, plants etc. Lorraine home and all three of us in a k...

The day's work revolving around inflammatory bowel diseases, and writing up unsurprising research. Who would have thought, for example, that having Crohn's disease might make your working life more difficult? Contacted by Janey an art director I met at Craig's wedding - and we may do some work together in future. The freelance horizons are looking brighter for me. The office as freezing today as it was Turkish bathish for the last few days. I had to wear my coat most of the day, and Keith sitting next to me fashioned a kind of medieval tabard out of bubble wrap. He asked me if I liked it, and I replied it was okay until someone has a pop at you. Had a ten minute nose around in Skoob books at lunchtime ferreting about for books about Jung. Several copies of a collection of essays addressing Jung's 'anti-Semitic shadow' struggling with the thorny problem of Jung's antisemitism. Very thorny when you consider that he had long term Jewish lover, revered (albe...

Lorraine's birthday today. I gave her my present, which was an iPad, and she literally cried with happiness which was good to see. She had loads of cards to open too. Up for a breakfast, I had Crastor kippers, which were wonderful. Understandably Lorraine and I had a rather delicate start to the day. But once we were up and running, we decided to take ourselves to Alnwick Gardens, which are spectacular as you can glean from some of the photos below. The rain held off. We had just emerged from the bamboo labyrinth when we bumped into Lorraine's pal Jess and Andrew, plus Jess's daughters and mother in law. This completely random as we were all over 350 miles from home. Met them in the cafe later for birthday cake and coffee. It was a real treat for Lorraine to have Jess just appear. It was our third coincidental event of the weekend. Lorraine absolutely loved being in the gardens. It was really well designed, with an amusing tour around deadly plants, and a lovely wall...