Another lovely day

Another lovely day.  I could be enclosed in my hothouse office, walking around the sweltering project management office, and the sticky hot paintshop where the lads have to wear full masked and suited protection - stinks of sweat in there in the summer.  Instead, I had a 645am walk along the canal.

The light was beautiful, intensely green on the trees, dappled on the water reflections, ripples of light enhanced sparkle where fish or insects disturbed the surface.  Cool with the sun not fully blasting.  It wasn't a long walk - I have social distanced coffee later and revel in the luxury of another permitted stroll. And friendship that is so much better than frustrating awkward Zoom which I personally hate - seeing yourself on screen during a conversation is not good.

Yesterday was frustrating: work has only one contract - with the DWP - not surprisingly given the bad news on employment!  Thank God for furlough - I'm grateful but it was an anxious day.  At least I had radio 4 inside science to keep me sane.  And I finished the dreadful "Lockdown" thriller.  I can quite see why it was originally rejected - it's sensationalist, has poor plotting and a ridiculous ending.  But there are seeds of the excellent thriller writer Peter May becomes - I have loved his Lewis series whose beautiful landscape descriptions are worth the library rental 75p!!  I miss library books - amazon has been my book source during lockdown.  My only necessary expense other than food...

Mercifully the bird book " A patch made in heaven" is much better.  In fact it's a joy to read. It covers a year of birding and wildlife watching in a scrubby patch of woods/gravel pit/lake.  Some days the chief pleasure is counting gulls, somedays it's rescuing an injured swan.  It is a treat to read.