Monday 2nd September 2024

It looks and feels like autumn. Though, when the sun shines it can get war, hot even, but the sun is lower in the sky all day, rises more towards the south and sets nearer to west. It is dark now before half eight most evenings, and only getting light at half five.

Next week we go to Tuscany, and when we come back, it'll nearly be October.

Despite not doing much over the weekend, we really enjoyed it, and we both feel resentful on Monday morning when work claims eight hours from me, and nine from Jools. We are ready to step off the treadmill and do nothing.

Or not nothing, something. Something that we might enjoy, volunteer for, something that helps others.

But for now there is work, of course. Donna was back, but Jools still went in at quarter to seven, mainly because I had an audit from seven, so had to be all logged in and ready to go.

We got up at half five, and I had second coffee and breakfast made for ten to seven, Jools had left, and I was hot to trot.

Four hours pass very slowly. I am like a modern day Sherlock Holmes, dealing with facts and evidence, and in doing so fight the good fight and free the great prisoner: truth.

We are done at eleven, then two half hour phone calls quickly follow, so that it is midday, and five hours after starting, that I can make a fresh brew and sit in the garden to contemplate things.

I make a pasta sauce with roasted vegetables, have that for lunch at one, although the wine was tempting, I have squash instead.

And through the afternoon, and as temperature rises when the sun come out from behind the clouds, procrastination comes all too easy, and with the internet available, faffing around gets ever more attractive, until I log off and wrap up for the day.

Being a Monday, Jools was off to the pool, so no cooking at least until later. Jen comes round. Her friend in Australia has developed cancer and is very ill, so Jen is flying out on Thursday and needs to pay for flights. She comes round as she is stuck in a loop on a website.

I clear that loop, but then find another. Some thinking involved and it seems that the phone connection wasn't strong enough, so log into the wi-fi, and it all works like magic and the zeros and ones pay for the flight.

Sitting on the patio, I see something large clinging to one of the stems. I guess, correctly, it was an Elephant Hawkmoth, so go to take shots, only to find a second.

Amazing creatures. I take 46 shots.

Jools arrives back as Jen was leaving, leaving no time for a chat or coffee. She just changes and leaves, and there is me again with the cats.

I listen to podcasts, have a brew and write. Then at eight, put the pizza in to cook so that it was ready for when Jools came home and we could eat, drink and be merry, just in time to go to bed.