Summer??

It’s finally here, that thing I’ve been waiting for so impatiently. The heat. We will still carry coats in our bags for a week or two just as we have been conditioned to expect the worst, but right now there’s the light and the heat and it’s a lovely thing and I’m glad of it.

Even though I’ve been waiting for it for ages, I barely went out in it. Admin, fixed a light and rested. A long happy lie in in the morning. It’s been pretty full on recently – doing interesting things but doing them lots. A little voice is waiting for the phone to ring about a job, but now it’s the weekend so I can try to forget about it.

I haven’t really been keeping up with the news while I’ve been rushing around, and looking at the state of it I’m kinda glad of it. I had the radio on in the background. There’s never anything heartening. Just a parade of lies and opinions and nastiness. Seems it’s all the children’s presenters right now. Rolf Harris dead and we all hate him now and Schofield is going down the same hole suddenly. I switched over to Radio 3 and listened to calming classical music.

Rest. There’s a mountain of admin but I was mostly disinclined to start climbing it today so I prioritised doing very little. Sometimes “nothing” is the right thing to do. Peaceful flat now with no fish tank. London though so outside the window all the drunk people are walking home. I hear flashes of their singing or their heated conversations and I’m glad as there was a long period when all that sort of companionship just stopped. Two summers we lost. The only comfort is that if the next one is a true plague we are slightly better equipped to understand it.

Much to do, but doing nothing can perhaps be excused if we think of it like winding back the spring. Now it’s a long weekend and I’m gonna see friends in it and soak up the sun, send a few invoices and do a bit of maths, but mostly I’m inclined to just be for a bit. I’ve been back at my butsudan chanting, which is usually a good sign. Tina Turner’s death got me thinking about the old Buddhist society again. I saw a photo of her chanting and her butsudan looked just like mine. It’s been a comforting practice for me. I just got put off by all the zoom meetings.

Thoughts in no particular order today but that’s been my day. No structure, pottering with occasional stops to fix things or make a big order on my credit card at Waitrose online. Streets and shops are crowded round here because of the flower show. I don’t think I’ll be going.