Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The rain, a homonym and how summers used to be.

1. I am shaking the water off my umbrella when the sun comes out.

2. 'What's time?' asks Jules.
'About ten to seven,' I reply, without stopping typing.
I don't understand why he's laughing, until Katie calls: 'Get some sage and fennel, too.'

3. I smell honeysuckle before I see it. It reminds me of a day in the summer I finished my GCSEs -- James and Glen and PaulV and I were walking in the woods. It was hot -- a proper June day -- and the world smelt of dust and honeysuckle. Someone picked a vine of it to twist round my straw hat.

Volunteers, eleven and bright crayons.

1. Volunteers growing out of the yellow clay on the edge of the building site: a castor oil plant with spiked green seed pods; and a couple ...