#homealonediaries5
Somewhat lowkey day today after dark and stormy night.
But I managed to get the dogs walked without getting blown over the cliff. And did some cooking!
And finished the waxing and demolished the rest of the tiles in the bathroom...
#homealonediaries4
Phew, what a day!
Was woken by Kitty, wanting to go outside and see to the squirrel who has eaten ALL the peanuts...
I was dressed and drinking tea when the doorbell rang and Kitty was enthusiastically welcoming a familiar-looking stranger.
"You know me" he said (I do?). Turned out he is a garden contractor, from whom I had foraged an old wooden ladder last year...and wanted to "borrow" my outside tap. No problem, I left him to it and walked the dogs ...the rain was just starting.
"Does your husband still go kayaking?" he asked on my return, "only I have a difficult teenage son who would love to go out but doesn't manage groups"...
Caught in the headlights of every kind of health and safety concern, I was able to demur on Alistair's behalf - Seriously?!
But he was very complimentary about what we had done..."beautiful house, beautiful garden, beautiful dogs..."
Woah, I'll stop you there - I am home alone after all!
By this time the rain was coming down in stair-rods and I donned more waterproofs to meet a friend for coffee on the prom. The proprieter is a neighbour...a waiter brought us sticky, sweet cakes 'on the house' and our coffees were also complimentary. I wonder if I shall ever need sugar again...
With ten minutes to spare before the bus I dip into a local shop where I had previously found good long-sleeved t-shirts. They didn't have any vaguely small and the young woman serving organised to order some for me. I memorise her name-tag (Hannah) while she does the paperwork and she promises to phone. I turn to leave..."I'm not Hannah, by the way, I'm Sam..."
Hahaha...onwards and upwards to the bus stop and to pick up my beautiful extra dog for the afternoon.
By this time my waterproofs are not... He gives me that "are you serious?!" look as I put his lead on, and we squelch home, meeting no-one.
It is still only early afternoon, but I have had it...the sugar-rush cake has dumped me with a headache and I am glad of several hours silence. And my fire...
Tiles? What tiles?
#homealonediaries3
Well today started well with some sunshine and a stiff wind.
I had been up in the night, seeing to the cooling fire and hooking out the ceramics - all good!
Headed for town and coffee with my good friend Who Is Leaving (you know who you are!)
The weather didn't improve and the dogs and I got blown around Kitty's Field.
Then it was time to demolish the tiles in the bathroom...
you know those little jobs you just begin - and immediately wish you hadn't?
You know that thing when you say breezily and hyperbolically "and the whole wall came too"?
Well it did...there is no wall - just crumbling lime-mortar and horsehair.
Dear Alistair, you know you said you'd be ok with replastering when you get back from Ireland...?!
#homealonediaries2
The wind blue up a hoolie in the night and I was out briefly with Evie who was restless...could NOT find Kitty this morning - toyed with the idea that she had, hearing the call of the wild, slipped out behind me, slid under the gate like some canine Flat Stanley and gone to join the wolves in the wood.
But no, she was IN bed in the attic...
The rain paused long enough for us to get a walk and for me to entertain the idea that a trip to M&S would be a Good Idea...I was given, (I want to say 'gifted' but that is a private joke between us) some vouchers recently and badly need some new, plain t-shirts.
That was a Big Mistake...what fresh hell...etc etc.
Came home with some, equally badly needed to be fair, handtowels.
And is it my imagination or are there rather a lot of yellow raincoats on the streets these days? Not so many 3" stilettos though...
Several conversations of late have got me thinking about rituals/ceremonies/occasions...
We, (he and I), have have gone so far in our avoidance of the Christmas 'spend-fest' that we have almost made a ceremony of non-ceremony. And yet I feel I have lost something...
Maybe the time has come for me to return to some sort of non-religious observance of the old rhythms of the seasons...the four 'quarters' and the four 'cross-quarters' perhaps? Or the moon-rhythms?
Does anyone out there feel the same stirring? Or know anything about gentle non-religious rituals to explore?
