In The Gloaming

We had a bit of an earthquake in the night.  I don’t think it rated very highly on the charts but it did wake me up.  The bloody bookshelves in the living room have collapsed!  When Geoff got up to look there was a crack all the way across the plaster where the brackets were fixed.  Scared us to death when we heard that racket downstairs in the middle of the night!  We left everything on the floor and I made some of that wonderful hot chocolate with chili powder.  We sat in the kitchen and drank it, watching our reflection in the skylight above.

I went to the shop today and we were quite busy.  I think there must have been a coach load of day-trippers in the area.  We sold all four of Maggie’s driftwood frames and I finally said goodbye to the dreaded ‘singing bowl’ that has been sitting there for years, gathering dust.  There was one gentleman came in – very dignified looking – and he was obviously some kind of specialist because he asked for Blessed Thistle (which we didn’t have) and Spanish Moss (which we did).  It turns out he owns Phoenix Moon, the company that makes all those fantastic essential oils; he and his wife have bought a converted warehouse down by the canal.  He has a very soft voice and I think his accent is Eastern European.  It’ll be interesting to have them join our community.

This evening Geoff and I had dinner with the French doors pushed open so we could enjoy the garden.  It was a bit chilly but it felt so nice to have some fresh air whilst we enjoyed our lamb chops and wilted spinach salad.  Two very unusual looking cats lurking in the shadows of the hedgerow; very large, with strange white markings that seemed almost fluorescent in the gloaming.  They watched us for about fifteen minutes before skulking off into the darkness.  Geoff reckons they had yellow eyes but I couldn’t see that well without my specs.  I sat for a while, after dinner, listening to some Carole King with a glass of wine.  Saw two shooting stars.