1. I walk home across the common -- it's bruised and muddy, but still here, and birds are calling to each other.
2. Now I have time to sit and look carefully at the glass paperweight I found in a charity shop on Sunday. This one has three trumpet flowers made from elongated millefiori petals in red, yellow and white, emerging from a cloud of ink blue glass and silver bubbles. I turn it this way and that to admire the details on the backs of the flowers, magnified by the thickness of the glass.
3. 'Well, supposing you meet a handsome French boy and you want to chat about daily routines past and present, including unexpected disruptions and your opinions on various chores?' I am flailing now, trying to tempt her onwards as we work through the sentence builder for her French test. She looks at me as if I've missed something key and says, 'He will learn English if he wants to talk to me.'
