Out And About

I don't know why it should be so, but after decades of being self-employed - my own boss, for goodness sake - and now eight years into retirment, I still feel a thrill at being free to do what I want. For almost exactly half of my life I've been able to decide when to work and when to play. This used to mean responding to the day: if it was nice I'd be in the garden, pruning, mowing, planting and weeding, then later I'd sit at the keyboard until all hours. Nowadays the gentle dichotomy is between picking up a fallen towel or doing the crossword. I invariably choose the latter because I can, though not without a tinge of guilt. But the sense of freedom to choose is so great that you might think I'd been recently released from a lifetime in prison, and I suppose that's what my early life felt like. Rules, instructions, expectations - I bridled at them all. Once, my idea of heaven would have been to go into a teashop and order a large plate of cakes all for me. I still get a big kick out of stopping for a meal when I'm at large by myself. Weird, I suppose. You'd have to be a Sagittarian to understand.

After yesterday's near perfection, today has been dull again but still not unpleasant. We've taken it easy, the boy and me, though I had to get my skids on at 12.40 when I remembered I was getting my hair cut 10 miles away at 1pm. When I returned I took the dog out for a quick walk, and unusually I let him off the lead on the lane. With Framlingham closed to traffic while roadworks are completed, and diversions in place, some lorries have been using the village as a short cut. But today all was quiet. Hugo loves to be off the lead on the lane. He becomes very proud, and trots along importantly and fast, stopping at the clumps of grass he likes to eat. If I hear the sound of a distant car and call him back, he comes at once, turning neatly at my knee to face the way we are going. I'd love to know if he has been trained to do that. The light was changing as we got back, but the evenings are definitely brighter than three weeks ago on the shortest day. Getting somewhere, aren't we?