It feels like it rained continually for a week after I returned home to Northenden. But that doesn’t matter, because I was sleeping for most of that time anyway. I was vaguely aware of the passing of time and the rain splashing against the windows and the wind howling through the trees and eating every now and then, but I’ve no idea why it took much longer to get over the jetlag this time than it usually does.
Still, the rain did stop eventually so I went for a wander down to the river, to see how high it was, and to see whether there was a realistic chance of any flooding.
The water was no higher than usual. I’m not saying I was disappointed, but I was certainly surprised.
The trees in the woods were taking a while to dry out, though. And if the rain didn’t cause any damage, the wind certainly did.
The last half dozen blackberries didn’t look very appealing, either, so we left them for the foxes. And the last half dozen bees are slurping the last of the pollen from the sunflowers, sunflowers that look a bit sad now that Autumn is approaching.
In Manchester Central Library, I joined a group of writers. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but in the end, after a bit of a chat, we just wrote for an hour, uninterrupted, and with no expectation to read out whatever nonsense we came up with. I’d never been up to the 3rd floor before, so of course I had to take a picture of the dome.
It was fun meeting Kimberly and Sarah, both published authors. The good news is, I was able to get a seat on the tram home.
Walking through the woods, we don’t often see birds. And when we do, they usually fly off pdq. But one little chap was sitting on the fence, yes, he just couldn’t decide whetehr to stay or not.
He wasn’t bothered by us, and he wasn’t in distress, so we just said hello and walked on by.
And in Painswick Park, there seemed to be far fewer geese than usual. Maybe they know something we don’t, and they’re heading south before the weather deteriorates.
A few of us had a discussion about the colour of this car:
Grey with a slight hint of blue was the consensus. But Google told us is was Cape York Green Metallic. Green? Sure enough. When we looked up the registration number, it did say green. I’m sure if I reported an incident to the police, I’d describe this vehicle as grey rather than green. So I won’t bother. And in any case, as far as I know, it’s not been involved in any criminal activity.
Over in Anchorage, the Autumn colours are a bit ahead of ours.
Later in the week, Liesel had a visitor, a young American, Holly, all the way from Washington. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the Autumnal colours.
I’m getting back into making radio shows so keep an eye on the Wythenshawe Radio schedule. It was a joy this week to have a chat with ‘one to watch’ Frankie Archer, the feminist Northumbrian electro-folk musician, who is going on tour very soon. Yes, I have my tickets. Mostly though, I was refamiliarising myself with the various software. Inevitably, there were ‘updates’. And updates almost always means adding in more features that you’ll never need. I’ve always thought, if it ain’t broke, don’t break it. So that’s my little whinge of the week.
Mick and Liesel's Antics 