Well I have not written for a long time, at least for me but I have been reading. I am finding newspaper's news, day to day rather useless. What for instance is today's news, well there is that terrible flooding in Texas about to grow worse. There is nothing much I can do about it but feel sympathy as people lose their homes, their bedrock security as the waters slowly rise. I worry about the animals caught up as well, a journalist said a deer had just floated by, not actually specifying whether it was alive or dead and I wonder if farm animals have been moved, as they did in this country when we had floods.
The fat bastard in North Korea has just launched a rocket that flew straight over the island of Hokkaida in Japan, every time I see his smiling face my heart turns over for his people, it is as if the human race has never grown up, we have to show a 'powerful warlike' face.
I have also been knitting, this I find is soothing, I knit plain stuff, so my interest in fair isle always seems a bit of a mystery to me but thumbing through this annual....
I am surprised how many young designers take it up, captured by the magic of the Scottish Isles and the crafts of old. The roses have had a second flush, the birds seem to be returning, the little wren can be seen low amongst the pots and plants looking for insects, the robin sits on the fence singing to himself and the swallows still fly high feasting on the aerial soup of insects that cloud the upper skies. Great round bales of straw still go past on farm trucks and the owl can be heard at night, so the quiet monotony of village life still goes on.
There is an events committee on Thursday, three main happenings unite the village. The barbecue, which was once held on the piece of land our house is built on, the quiz, held in the pub next door, pies are to be the food this time. Then there is a 'carvery'.
Also, there is a collecting of the apples in the village to be turned into cider and apple juice, this takes place in Kirby, must have a large press there. We have had gifts of plums and tomatoes and I am waiting for Jo's apples to appear outside her home.
And then there is Barry Lopez to listen to -