Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The day off, trying the food and The Claude Glass.

1. Nick comes home and says he's taking next Monday off.

2. We have dinner at the place where we will be getting married: it's a chance to try the food and choose the wine.

3. I come to the end of Tom Bullough's beautiful book The Claude Glass. It's the acutely observed story of boys growing up in rural Wales. Andrew, the monsterously neglected son of a native farmer lives among the sheepdogs, and views the world through an optical toy he discovers in the ruined farmhouse. Through the intervention of a neighbouring family of sheepfarming hippies, he discovers a world outside the mud and darkness and stink of his own home.

Last night's rain, first blackberries and chamomile.

1. All across the common, ponds and ditches are full from last night's rain. Everything green is washed, the dust is laid and the earth ...