A summer sun now in terminal decline graces the northern skies with the pale watery light of autumn. Crisp mornings and cool evening in ever shorter measure lead back into our homes to discover the pleasures of warm fireside evenings and friendship once again.

Finally watered my leeks this evening and just about everything else. Overall it’s cool but quite dry and the terracotta pots lose a lot of moisture so fast. I sat for a while inside my swinging seat safe behind the mosquito net from the insects. A little moment of reflection taken for myself to allow me to take in the cool air and the incredible calm of the evening. If I were blind still I would feel the approach of autumn.
Saw a small frog...about 50mm long. Must be one that made it through the winter and on into its second year. I haven’t seen any climb out of the ponds this summer but it should be anytime now. I love to see them as it is a hopeful omen that all shall carry on regardless of whatever we have done to the world. When I see them I can feel that I have done something amazing building the ponds

It’s 5.30pm and I have arrived home to a warm evening and I am now sitting outside with the whoosh of the traffic going past at rush hour mingling with the bird song. Despite the traffic noise it’s peaceful and now the heat has gone from the day it leaves a cooling calm. I often find that I need to just sit and unwind when I get home. Failing that I can become rather grumpy (not pleasant!) No chance of that tonight though because it is so fantastic to be outdoors. To finish reading the paper from this morning and to sit smoking as the light dims and the insects swirl around on the miniature thermals that are illuminated by the shafts of light penetrating through the dense canopy of the sycamore. The decay of the day played out in front of me till I feel the need for warmth or a respite from the kissing midges.

The news is pretty grim for the most part and mainly revolves around the couple who lost their daughter in Portugal. The story goes on and on, did they or didn’t they? Everyone seems to have forgotten that the child is still missing. We seem to have been left with two possibilities for her disappearance and both are as awful as the other. It’s all become another media frenzy of speculation and none of it seems helpful. I am beginning to wonder why I even buy a paper anymore.

So I put the paper away and revel in the scent of the neighbour’s dinner wafting over the wall. It is something with a keynote of garlic onions and peppers...a Mediterranean aroma that accentuates the evening perfectly. Why I shall pour a glass of wine soon and sit here and just chill and pretend I am some coast overlooking the Med as the sun sinks low over the horizon. I shall forget all the problems of the world for a little while. Hope you are having a good evening.

Finally managed to sort through the vinyl LP’s the other day and out of around 2000 managed to prune around 100 out. That’s 5% which doesn’t sound an awful lot but it took an age to carry out. I think I am in danger of becoming one of these mad, old people that keep things just for the sake of it. (If I don’t become a hoarder then certainly I shall be old and slightly mad.) Still someone might find something in the pile of records that they really like at the charity shop. I guess I could try to sell them but it’s a rather specialist selling game and in any case most were acquired at car boots and charity shops in the first place.

It’s going to be another beautiful day again despite the nip in the air at the minute. I have just been sat outside with my morning cup of tea wrapped in my dressing gown and it is distinctly chilly. Summer has raced ahead of us this year and now as we find ourselves in the decline of daylight it becomes almost a dream. We shall wake up soon and find ourselves enfolded into autumn.

The weekend slips away like a high tide leaving the shore for the sea. See the two brief days of joy now flowing back to the ocean of the working week. To labour, to industry, to wealth is the siren call of Monday morning and we that can all answer. So it is another week begins.

Thursday was one of the sunniest we have seen for some weeks (unlike the southern half of the country which seems to be perpetually sunny.) We had solid, clear blue skies which I glimpsed all day through the office window. It promised to be a beautiful evening and it was. I sat in the garden with some bread and cheese and a glass of wine and relaxed. Unfortunately wine has a rapid soporific effect on me and I was in bed for 9pm. Not before I had photographed the colours of the sunset sky though (see bottom of this.) I always used to wonder if I could end up drinking too much but now the question is can I drink enough without falling asleep like a dotard. Probably not and there is some small comfort. Another healthy addition and now that smoking is banned in public enclosed spaces (including work) I am smoking significantly less too. Who’d have thought that I would have had a healthy decline into old age? It’s going to be a quiet weekend i think. Everyone is working so I shall sit and read a book in the garden if the weather allows. Still off to Devon in a little less than two weeks...! Hope you’re having a good weekend. I created another blog to put a continuing story on so I’ll see how that goes.

A misty morning with cool air sets this September day. I got up at six am but it is still relatively dark and the veil of mist twisting around the reels and the shrubs is almost mystical. It’s going to be a fine dry day leading into a slightly cloudy weekend but hopefully staying dry. I took a photo so maybe you can get a taste of the morning as I saw it.

It’s a classic late summer day. Strong warm sunshine and deep blue sky with sparsely spread voluminous clouds that rise vertically up into the air. Shreds of cobwebs are lit by the sunlight and lie taut in a mesh of random pathways that disappear into the shady corners. They are the rite of passage for small spiderlings to seek out brave new worlds. Everywhere is dappled and bird calls and bees resonate on the breeze that sways the glass lanterns dotted around the garden. I am content for a little while to forget the working day and think of nothing that could cast a shadow on this moment. A feast of tranquillity to melt away the statistics, reports and meetings. To see the light and smell the air...to live or at least understand why we do so. To feel for a brief time that I have all the time in the world.

Hope you like the picture of the geranium and the video to listen to the birdsong. Have a good evening.

The wind blows across a flat, bruised landscape made from a mixture of blue peat and purple heather. The expansive barren vista reaches out in all directions till it is cropped from view by some small watered dell or long stilled quarry that is crowned with slabs of blackened sandstone. Ancient woods once stood on this place and crowned the top of all the hills surrounding the town. Tall sentinels that watched the dawn of man and his rise to dominance till their fall came swift with his ill thinking hands. Yet even as I sadden for the world that was, my eyes are drawn to a stunted oak that lies in a small hollow. It’s twisted stem and branches trace out a torturous path of growth. Barely three feet tall it clings to its spot on this earth with a tenacity and will that puts me to shame. Here it has lain for the last decade and waited for the world to change and spring sylvan siblings from under its spartan shade. Waited for me to stroke the earth and place a token at its roots. It is done.

1st September 2007
Here we are so soon in September already. Spare a thought for Greece and its people suffering from the fires and it teaches us that we should not complain as all we are having is a little wet weather. I love Greece and its people and history. Must be a great feeling to belong to a people that gave us so much that we built the European civilisations on it so long ago. Hope it all gets back to normal soon.

The rain continues and the odd time the sun comes out it produces a thousand mirrored echoes on all the wet leaves holding drops of water. It’s really quite beautiful but I miss sitting out in the garden. Still off to Devon in three weeks time and I’m looking forward to that. Nick definitely is ready and a week of laughs and food and wine will do him the world of good. I prescribe hours in the hot tub for him (and me!)

Nothing planned for the weekend as such...made some bread this morning (getting good at this black art now) went to have a haircut and now doing a little writing. Hope you have a good weekend.

Soft footsteps shape the world into a better place than the big paws. It is better to live a life less than extraordinary because hard roads lead us to the stars and the knowledge that you always tried to do the right thing is a benison set beyond any material gains. Decency and honesty may seem to have a poor return on the investment but it sets a soul to rest.