Three Beautiful Things

1. He is sitting more or less content among drifts of cheap packaging from China. 2. It's a black sky and gold light afternoon. 3. She wants a refill for this one particular pen from a shop that is only in London. This feels like familiar behaviour.

1. Jackdaws, quick and smart as croupiers, flicker themselves in and out of a playing card sized hole in a sealed chimney. 2. I do consider a cheeky sign-off (almost certainly no one is reading or reviewing) but I haven't yet been paid, and I'm not entirely sure of the comms plan. So I deny myself and bask in the peace of mind. 3. Just yesterday I was thinking that after the run of dry weather I'd need to start watering the garden. Now stormy rain has set in for a few hours.

1. With the sun behind her, my friend comes down the hill towards our gate. 2. We step over a wet place where a rust-coloured chalybeate spring runs over the road. 3. I walk over spring mud and wonder which of my footprints will harden into summer ruts and which will flake away into dust.

1. I find myself deep in a book that makes me laugh and forget where I am. 2. A little hand sanitiser quickly lifts the biro ink stain. 3. Among his photos of the weekend -- the play of lake water light on a swan's breast feathers.

1. The taxi driver and I have been talking on the five-minute journey. As I get out, he thanks me for my story of rocking and jolting over fields in my grandfather's ancient green Land Rover that always smelled of petrol because of a leak in the tank. 2. I catch the gaze of a baby in a backpack and we both smile. 3. The sky is clear and dark enough that I can view the zodiacal light. I'd never heard of this before, but apparently around the equinox, light from the sun below the horizon reflects off space dust to brighten the sky just after dusk and before dawn.

 Today, Satya Robyn has published her interview with me over on Substack.  Do take a look. 1. My cake comes with a dish of whipped cream, just like in the 1980s. 2. Degree by degree, the sunset has moved round until I can't see it from my window -- but I can see it warming the building at the end of the Pantiles. 3. I deliver an edit and pretty much float downstairs when supper is called.