Saturday, May 4
The woods, 11:00
I started the day by inventing a Saturday Acronym: WECS. This stands for WALK, EAT, CLEAN, SHOWER, the first four components of my Saturday. Usually we discuss what order they will take place in. Now we can streamline it. I can shout WECS, and Irma can shout back, No – today its SEWC. We both felt excited to have saved an unnecessary two minutes conversation.
WECS remained undisputed and so I walked for forty five minutes, thinking about Zoho and whether it could fit into the project we have planned. And whether they would agree to playing a part in the project. And whether they would need to agree.
I pause for a few moments and think about the woods themselves. I think about wild spaces and, looking round, I observe the carpet of leaves formed from leaves from the last eight or nine years. Nobody cleans the woods; it grows as it does. I take some pictures of the leaves and suspect that I recognise a few of them from last year or the year before.
When I return ECS will proceed as planned. While I clean I will look out of the window and observe that the clear sky has changed and a heavy snow has begun to fall, to the extent that it has blocked my view of the houses over the road.
At some point in the afternoon Irma will go shopping while I sit reading.
At 17:30 we will go to Mike and Pirjo’s graduation party for their son. Mike Collinson went to Keele at the same time as me, or so he claims. They live in Vartiokylä about ten minutes from us.
We will both have umbrellas as snow and hail falls on us. As we approach Irma will realise that she has already met Pirjo. She and Naa bought Naa’s hamster cage from her several years ago.
We will meet other Finnish/British couples. I will talk with Les and Martina and Scott and his Finnish wife whose name I never catch. Les comes from Bromborough and Scott from Chester.