Saturday, January 19, 2008

Shine up, small shop and siblings.

1. Our water is very hard, so it tends to leave scum on the draining board. It's not a difficult to clean off; but it tends not to get done -- things that come out of the dishwasher wet (anything made of plastic, I'm looking at you) get stacked there; we don't really have the space to put all our crockery away; and we have a no drying up policy. But today there are only a few things there, so I put them away and clean up. It's satisfying to wipe over a squirt of lime scale remover so the stainless steel shines.

2. Coming out of the dark and into a village shop crammed floor to ceiling with every conceivable item. The aisles twist and turn and it is easy to get lost. Gradually, the ready meals and tins and cakes and bottles turn to paper and note pads and sticky tape and toys and gift packaging and then I step through a doorway into the Post Office.

3. At half past midnight, my siblings come home. Rosey comes into my room to kiss me goodnight.

Bud vase, tomato and the poem I needed to hear.

1. Among the faded cut daffodils that I'm putting on the compost heap there is one that will do for another day in a bud vase. 2. For th...