I left home this morning to be met with a thunderous deluge falling thick and fast, and filling more than half the roadway in front of me. It was wide and long and rather deep. I took my four wheeled motor carriage very slowly through the murky water, and noted the sandbags laid on the left side of the road to soak up the excess. Wasn't working , I noted, and wondered if the nearby hedgerow homes had been flooded overnight.
There was no stopping the rain today, and we shall have more tomorrow. Warmer, but wetter. I have been busying myself today with with planning and organising the accessories for our weekend party.
I will finalise everything tomorrow.
Pendragon has gone to work in Outer Nissrevin for two days, counselling some lost souls to betterness. I miss him greatly when he works away .
I keep busy though, with tidying and refurbishing our precious toadstool home.
i have had lots of calls to day from our weekend guests, checking the arrangements. I still found time to ponder my outfit for our afternoon soire.Two choices predominate, both of them black.
I have a chinese jacket and jacquard skirt, or black linen jacket decorated with pastel embroidered butterflies. Sounds as though it overeggs the lily, but it is tasteful and rather special.
With black palazzo pants, and a shapely top, it may be the talking point of our event.
Dilly Gumm, my cleaning operative comes to call tomorrow to freshen the house for Pendragon's return. I'll let Dilly have a look at my prospective wardrobe and see what she thinks. Dilly is no slave to fashion but has shown herself in the past to have a keen eye for items which come together in harmony to show one's finer features to advantage. Dilly works hard, and takes a pride in her work, no matter how unappealing the task may be. She is currently de- greasing the Willow oven, and that's no small operation. But she sings merrily to make the task go faster, and never pouts resentfully when asked to get her hands dirty.
She talks little of her family these days. I know she trusts me not to mention her private business outside to anyone, but right now I feel she just would rather not go there. It is for some reason too painful.Coming to work seems to give her solace for whatever troubles her, but still behind the eyes a weary sadness hangs heavy.I have grown to admire her tirelss struggle to keep her family afloat financially, and her measured approach to the big problems of the world. Dilly sees everything through practical spectacles, strips away the trimmings and grasps the mettle of a situation.
I enjoy talking to her, and listening to her matter of fact views from the battlements of ordinary life.
We will stop for tea and a scone at 11.00. Always tea and always eleven.
Wally our toadstool cuckoo barely bothers to come out when Dilly comes, as she is so exacting in her time management. I had to tap twice on the
wooden clock face last week before he deemed to emerge and signal the hour. His disgruntled feathery grimace spoke volumes but I matched it with one of my wry "dinnae no' dae that, Wally " looks, and he fairly picked up his step.
Pendragon does not return home till Saturday, so I shall spend Friday evening watching the digital picture box for an hour or two and perhaps press a few vestments along the way.
More tomorrow, dear friends, from Amarantha, the Rainbow Faery, keeper of the finest little toadstool in the West.
