Among the neglect ...

Sunshine and heavy showers, some of hail - and the realisation that all the ferries that affect us were back on and things were returning to normal. And a pretty idle day for me - having acquired this strange cough, and in the light of my pal's dire pneumonia brought on by ignoring another of the same, I didn't go out stravaiging in the wind but confined myself to two minor outings, both involving very little in the way of fresh air.

One of them was exciting, as the printer had a couple of proof copies of my book ready for me to check. Among other things, I had to decide on the degree of shininess of the cover, and though I'm tempted by the non-glossy one, I feel it's vulnerable in the way a degree of lamination would avoid. So, as I do with paint, I'm going for the vinyl silk effect of a semi-matt lamination, and may pop in again to see if he's mocked one up by tomorrow. As the chaps in Argyll Print & Design think they can do it without sending to Glasgow, I'm in the exciting position of being almost ready to have the first batch of copies to sell ...Watch this space!

Other than that it was merely a visit to the supermarket, which seemed rather barren in a soviet-era way. I wouldn't be surprised if the weather had something to do with that - but it means I'll have to pay another visit later in the week, which is tiresome. But I'm blipping what caught my eye as I left the house in a sunny moment: these skinny little crocuses (croci?) have survived the floods and opened, amid the weeds and grass of the end of the border. It seemed a hopeful sign.

Again, I realised that we've had it easy during storm Dennis. I rang friends who live in Kington, on the Welsh border, thinking of the river that passes two houses along the main road from their lovely house; they were told yesterday to take all their precious stuff upstairs and spent as much time deciding on what that entailed as they did in carrying out the instructions. But at 8pm they had a call to tell them they were no longer in a red zone ...

I was delighted to hear that one of the things they stowed upstairs was the booze.