Heart

I awoke to the sound of torrential rain falling on the trees outside my window. It was falling straight down in heavy drops, splashing off the roof slates in a way that created a small fog of droplets in the few inches above the roof. Fay put it well when she called it 'stage rain' - if you'd had seen it in a film, you would have imagined a showerhead above the camera.

Saw Poppy off as she went to France for a few weeks, and it might turn out to be the last I see of her for a very long time. Was nice to get to say goodbye properly, even in my sleepy groggy state, as I'd failed to meet her for a drink at the pub last night.

Sorted more stuff for Santander - I've luckily managed to find the web pages in English, so it's slightly less stressful. Although it does say something about my level of Spanish... should probably work on that soon.

Went for a lunchtime scone at Kilimanjaro, and headed off in the mizzle to the museum. I love it even more on a weekday - a much finer calm, punctuated every now and then by a stray school group in high-vis matching jackets.

After as hasty late lunch with Meg and Hannah, I decided to join Fay and her brother, who were heading out to Haddington, as Sandy was racing in a bike race out there. The race was a few miles out of town, so Fay and I just sat in the local and had drinks and chips and sticky toffee pudding. A stark contrast to the grueling punishment that Sandy was putting himself through in the rain outside.

About 2 hours later Sandy made his way to the car, battered and bloody from a crash on the last corner of the race that pushed him from potential victory to somewhere in the first 10. He wasn't best pleased. Impressive cuts though.

Back home, and hungry as a horse. Too tired to do anything but eat and fall into bed.

This is a willow ball, named Heart by the artist Lizzie Farey