Although I’ve been relaxing, I see this will be my 217th post of the year, on the 256th day. It means I’m 39 posts off my original target of averaging one a day, but it has allowed me to relax with the rest of my writing, which seems to have helped things along.

Nothing of note happened yesterday.  We had a good cooked breakfast instead of a puny fibre and fruit filled bowl of sensible goodness, but we had it as brunch, so kept the calories down that way.  I had an email telling me two of my haiku were being retained for further consideration. This releases enough rejects for me to compile my last submission of the month. It does not, however, raise much hope as my previous experience of being short-listed does not provide much reason for optimism. But you never know.

The Heron is back again. Arnot Hill Park

I did the shopping online this afternoon and have ordered a number of healthy things. Now that the cooler weather is here we find ourselves feeling more like cooking. The kitchen gets quite a lot of afternoon sun and can be uncomfortable. I’m toying with the idea of some form of shade, particularly if the weather is likely to get hotter. In the old days I would have rigged up a pergola, but these days we will need a builder, and once you have a builder you end up subsidising his lavish lifestyle and the bills pile up. I can buy a retractable awning for only £3,800 according to an advert I just read, but that doesn’t include fitting. It’s a lot to pay for a cooler kitchen.

A more economic answer may be the one we chose this summer – eat salad. You can’t suffer from the heat of the kitchen if making tea consists of pulling salad out of the fridge.

Cormorant