When the wind blows ...

I'm glad to note that the wind that grew stronger all through today now seems to have abated somewhat. It's too dark to see if the rose that's just about to come out has survived; I staked it during the last strong winds but it's grown again since. However, the lovely azalea at the front of the house, the one that always makes me think of a wedding dress, hasn't had much of a chance and several of its big blooms were scattered on the grass. I rescued the ones in this blip just so that I could enjoy them indoors, though they'll not last long before falling. My son made me laugh because when I put flowers on that sideboard, in the little space that's left there, he says it looks as if I've built a shrine to the family - there are photos of him and his brother, and the two granddaughters, while on the wall above are photos from each son's wedding day. I've never been good at organising surfaces that look elegant and uncluttered - no sooner do I clear a space than someone (not me!) lays something else down - a bill, a reminder, a pair of spectacles ...

This enforced concentration on home has made us both wonder how we'd organise things if we had just bought our house - a Victorian end terrace built in 1897, probably as a holiday house for a Glasgow merchant. Because it's a crescent, the back of the house tapers slightly (there's not a right angle in sight!) and the garden is narrow and the kitchen pretty tiny, though not as tiny as the "galley kitchen" in our first flat in Hyndland. Because we've been here for 45 years, we've accumulated a lot of stuff, only thinned every now and again by some turmoil associated with builders or decorators. I realise I'm turning into my mother, who used to say "I must get rid of some of this stuff": she would sometimes leave out a bag or two of things she'd found that belonged to me, so that I could take it away and have the dilemma of whether or not to bin it.

Lockdown (sort of) thoughts on a nondescript day with a sore knee (all that pavement pounding) in which my most notable achievement was making two loaves. I think I'd like something more tomorrow, please ...