The Rain It Raineth Every Other Day

October has begun with alternating wet and dry days. Today it's
rain like everything is coming to an end...
a line of mine I really like but haven't ever finished the poem - in fact can't quite remember where the original draft is. I think it may have been a writing class exercise. It rains hard, relentlessly, the sky determinedly sombre, the other side of the valley veiled in cloud. Rain comes down the chimney, but only on the right. We hope the man from the stove shop will come one day soon to advise about wood burners and chimney linings, and why the rain is descending into the fireplace. It's always quiet up here on a Sunday, but when it's wet there's no-one about. Just one dark hooded figure a while back who came and knocked at one of the neighbours' doors, then went away again.

I have designed and printed little postcard-sized cards on a lovely shade of turquoisy mid-blue to advertise my services on the noticeboards around town, of which there are several. It's the next step in the venture. I open my drawer to look at them again, imagine them being in the public domain, read by a concerned parent, the number jotted down on a scrap of paper... I think it will also be worth putting myself on various counselling/ therapy type websites too. And then there are business cards to get, and a leaflet to design, and maybe later, when I'm more sure of what I want to say about myself and my work, a website. There's a scheme which will pay me £50 a week for 16 weeks for going self-employed from Jobseekers, so I shall soon be registering, and all will be official. I nearly got an adult referral this week, but she turned out to be a friend of a friend, and that's the trouble with doing this sort of work in this little community. My inclination is not to take adults unless they live outside the immediate area.

Our friend S cooked us a glorious meal last night - celery and potato soup made with miso, pork chops with apricot and sage stuffing roasted on a bed of potatoes with bacon and garlic, and courgettes with chilli and mint, followed (much later) by organic plum crumble with soya custard. A glass of S's own hawthorn wine made for a heady aperitif, followed by two good bottles of red wine. Between courses two and three, a few glasses to the good, we played darts, S's new obsession. To my amazement I discovered I'm rather good at it, though of course it might have been beginner's luck (I used to play a bit when I was perhaps 18, but I feel like a beginner). Quite a thrill to be able to send the dart successsfully to the place on the board for which I was aiming! However, S won!! She's keen to get a team going, and make this into a permanent feature of life. She's invested £19.99 in a rather posh darts board with little cupboard and blackboard with nice soft chalk, and two sets of 'arrers'...

My beloved Labtec mini glow mouse has died. I am reduced to working on the laptop's own mouse pad, which I loath and detest. I shall be forced to fork out £5 for another mini glow mouse. Some things are important.

L's walking is better every day. An acre of old skin has peeled from her foot! Important to be in good shape as her 60th birthday approaches.