1. Every night I go to sleep with my fingers entangled in John’s hair. (When he shaves his head, I just rest my fingers on his head instead. It’s more tactile when he has hair.)
2. The horses are back again in the field around the corner. On our way back from walking to the shops the long way around, we stop to feed them small chunks of carrot and stroke their noses. Later, John, who doesn’t really like horses, says it’s one of his favourite moments of the day.
3. The lasagne is perfect.
1. The squirrel returns for another nut-fest – and brings three of its friends. All four of them run wildly around the balcony, up & down the steps, over the fencing and into the elderberry tree, picking up nuts on fly-bys. We watch through the window, as intrigued as the cats.
2. In the time I’m in the post office, the horses who live next-door-but-one to us travel from one side of their soggy field to the other. They’re near the fence as I walk past, almost as if they know I have treats for them. They crunch the carrot and I stroke their damp noses. My sleeve is confused for more carrots and gets investigated by wet lips. It smells faintly of horses for the rest of the day.
3. In the evening, I go to Bingley Little Theatre to watch a play. It’s not something I would ordinarily choose to go to see but Rosemary, the director, offered me a free ticket for the first night. “It’s very silly,” she assured me every time it was mentioned and she was right: it is very silly but good-silly. The audience is a little shy at first but by the second half, they’re laughing raucously.
© 2024 Louisa Parry