Wednesday, July 13

I was woken up sometime in the night by a loud thunderstorm overhead. Auo and Jack were both about the same age, about twelve I suppose, and we were paddling a raft through Waterworld in search of strawberries. We had a sheepdog with us. Auo was laughing.

I got up when Irma left and started writing. I had woken several times in the night, beofre the thunder, and while I was awake I had formulated some thoughts so, unusually, I just sat down and started writing without any preparation. Later in the morning I read through all of the last two parts, and they held up better than I expected. In one way, then, I have less left to do than I thought.

Naa started school at 11:00 today and so she got up, ate breakfast and left by about 10:00. It rained briefly later in the morning, and Sunshine left the house again about 11:50. Now I have finished writing and stepped out of the house to see the world. It is still there.

In a few minutes I will vacuum clean the house and do some general cleaning before I start the afternoon’s painting. All I can say about that is: there is less of it than there was. There is, however, a wind.

There will also be rain, so Naa and I will fold the sheets and I will iron the laundry, before Naa goes to help Tarkku. After that it will be dry again and so I will finish the outdoor painting.

In the evening there will be a huge thunderstorm, and the cat will hide somewhere outdoors until it is over, before racing indoors. Wherever it hides it keeps dry, since it will arrive back with only wet paws.

When the thunder has died down Irma will book a hotel for our forthcoming Liverpool trip, and we will go to bed.