Ups and Downs

Last week after my Easter visitors left I hung nine towels and three sets of bedding out on the line and the sun and light wind dried them in no time. This week a damp mist has hung in the air and the sun has barely broken through. Nevertheless it has reminded me of walking up to college beside the Liffey in Dublin every day, and there has been something exhilarating about the atmosphere which never failed to lift me back then too. It isn't always damp in Ireland, but when it is there's a fineness to the air that makes locals call it a "soft" day. Hugo and I have walked the lanes regardless, and as always have relished the silence and the sound of birds.

I was way down the lane yesterday morning when Sophie rang to tell me Judy had died suddenly. The shock was the more acute because I had had lunch with her and David on Sunday, and played an afternoon of bridge with them. Sophie stayed calm as she told me what had happened, and it was me who struggled with tears, and tried to keep my voice steady. I was feeling very sad when I got home, and put on the radio for a bit of chatter only it was Radio 3 that came on and Beethoven's Archduke Trio was playing. I first heard this music early in my courtship with Peter, and it's been a treasured piece ever since. Well, that set me off, but how was I to know that my new eyeliner would run? The tears were cathartic, but the vision I must have presented at the opticians later - panda eyes barely covers it - must have taken him aback. I only realised when he sat me opposite a huge mirror and there were all my dark smudges. We laughed about it, but I hope I've absorbed it as a warning to always check my appearance before I leave the house. It's what the hall mirror is for, stoopid!

Ruth has been hard at it cleaning her house ready for viewers, and she made me laugh with descriptions of cleaning difficult places with her electric toothbrush. She uses an old head, obviously, but it reminded me of a French and Saunders sketch where they were hotel chambermaids, and put the contents of the guests' toilet bags to good use when it came to making the loos shine.

Still beautiful

Cutie-Pie

Tucked up in his pijjies

And finally, my beautiful boy is now permanently scarred, his face sporting a white blaze where the squirrel/cat got its claws into him. I was so careful to keep him from scratching the wound, but in the end the scab dropped off cleanly and left his tender pale skin showing. I'm going to put my eyeline pencil to good use and see if I can camouflage him a bit. I don't want the other children picking on him.