Sunday, November 26

 

 

My cold had almost gone when I woke up this morning. Irma’s had got worse, and she had almost lost her voice. Snow fell onto an already white ground. Sunshine went out and returned within minutes.

We have a large, late brunch. As soon as Sunshine recognises the preparations he will jump onto the chair he uses to join us for breakfast and sit there patiently until we both sit down. Irma will give him some cat treats which he eats from the table while we eat sandwiches. He has turned this into a routine of his own devising, and we go along with it.

In the afternoon I will remove another of the plants that need removing in autumn. This time I will use a saw and do it in ten minutes instead of the hour it took me yesterday with garden scissors.

Back in the house I will look out of the window and see a large rabbit sitting in the back garden eating. It will stay there for about twenty minutes. For some, probably childish, reason I like the idea of living somewhere where I can see rabbits in the back garden.

At 16:00 Irma will leave to see Päivi. I will do some ironing and talk to Naa, who has arrived back from her boat trip. The other girls partied until 5am. Naa and Sampo went to bed earlier and got off the boat at 9:00. They went for a walk in Tallinn while the others lay in their cabins unconscious. At some point in all of this she and Sampo decided that they now have an official relationship, whatever that exactly means.

Irma will arrive home sometime in the evening and make porridge. I will finish the first novel in Michael Moorcock’s Elric: the Moonbeam Roads trilogy.

We will both go to bed early.