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Ooh err, suddenly I'm in the new look Blogger set-up. I may have tentatively clicked something, but I hadn't really contemplated such a big change. Yes, I am a creature of habit, fond of the familiar. Be still my racing heart, all is well...

Afternoon, just beginning to grow dark, though it has not been very light all day, mist and rain prevailing, warmer than recently, patches of snow and ice melting steadily in the downpour. The tops are no longer visible, a shroud of fog closing in just beyond the stand of poplars perhaps 100 yards away. A dog barks outside the post office, its voice deep, its tone agitated, fast, frequent barks of displeasure.

My intercostal muscles and diaphragm are tender from coughing. From time to time I misinterpret what I'm feeling as indigestion. This cold, or virus, or whatever it should properly be called, is a mean and moody shape-shifter, and is currently in the coughing and nose-blowing phase. I've run through nearly an entire box of balsam tissues enriched with soothing aloe vera. This phase also involves being awake from 3 or 4am. Tiring. I get up after a time, and make a fresh hot water bottle and a cup of camomile tea with honey, take them back to bed, read, and, if the cough will loosen its grip, eventually get some more sleep around 6 or 7. It's hard work, but I don't feel actually ill. I swear sometimes and grumble, and get exasperated when I knock my glass of water over, when reaching for the light. But I am not unhappy. No. Under the veil of this cold, I sense I am returning to myself, feel the stirrings of enormous energy and connection. I have a sense that at last, after a long time of feeling it was all over, I can begin (again). You wouldn't believe how many times I've written and rewritten the last two sentences. This is not easy to put into words...