A sniff of Autumn

AS MY FLU ABATES and my nose begins to work again, I detect a hint of brown leaves on the wind. Autumn is tiptoeing slyly in between the rain showers and half remembered sunbeams, and our truck is getting splendider by the day. Yesterday Tui took me out into the air for the first time in 6 days, and we parked the Bedford up the road in a heathery sheepy spot where we lit a fire and made tea and eggs on toast and read books. There is now a lovely wooden ceiling in the truck (with skylights above where my desk will be), a skeleton of a kitchen with sink and cooker and cupboards, and a door handle and a lock! Even the wood and green of our wheeled home blend in with the windy brown grey hills, and the smoke curls out of the chimney past a brand new chimney rain hat.

Back in the house.. I have been able once more to put pencil and paintbrush to the next circle of wood that is to be Once Upon O'Clock number four. It is dark indoors, and any brief chink of sunlight that breaks through the days of rain showers is welcome indeed. We sit in the house planning travels, impatient to have our house finished, and imagining waking parked in Other Places, where the light is different and where the grass is crisp with frozen dew...