Sunday, August 6

 

 

The cat woke up at 6:15 and wanted everything to happen right now. I resisted as best I could until I gave in and got up at 7:30. The weather had improved: no rain, just cloud and a sun peeping through every now and then. I put the water heater on in the sauna house and then had breakfast.

The wind started up and I sat playing with Sunshine in the garden. At some point in the morning Irma booked me a plane ticket for London, so that I can visit Casey for his 3rd birthday. This year my teaching schedule means that I can visit on his actual birthday.

I had a session of hair washing and then I cleaned the sauna bench. This took about two hours or more because we have used it as a table and for years we have casually spilled soaps and shampoos on its wooden surface. Since I intend to paint it I have to get it into a suitable state, which means I have to stop it foaming every time anyone drops water onto it. Eventually I felt happy that it acted like ordinary wood, and left it to dry.

As I finish I notice the weather. A hurricane has started knocking everything over. I race outside and start moving the plants, some of which have already jumped off fences and tables on their own initiative. I do not make it in time to save the pottery chicken which has apparently exploded on contact with the ground.

I can see full-sized trees bending over at thirty degrees, with branches, leaves and twigs flying off . I try to take a photograph but I cannot manage to capture the effect, possibly because the volume of the noise that the wind makes forms a crucial part of the experience.

The wind will continue all afternoon and almost all of the evening, although it will lessen towards dusk.

I will make dinner, prepare for my first official work-day tomorrow, and then sit and read. At 20:28 I will have a WhatsApp chat with Irma and at 23:00 I will fall asleep, with Sunshine lying on the bed next to me.