Not a day for sunbathing

Raining cats and dogs. The dog and I got very wet on our morning perambulation. The visiting cat staying in its dry home. I lit a fire. The wind changed direction and blew smoke back down the chimney.

One small piece of good news: two magpies in the garden. I'm hoping that it was existing magpie plus his usually absent pal rather than two new magpies on a rare sortie with the other, normal resident, biding his time before returning to my fence.

They gave each other a kind of friendly ruffle of the feathers before one flew onto the bird feeder and the other onto the ground underneath where the disturbed seeds would fall. A good division of labour.

In the meantime, rodents are my mission in the essay. I've not written a great deal about the rodents per se. But I keep thinking of their little eyes and soft bodies. I think of cages and syringes. I think of 'forced swim tests' and the Wistar Kyoto strain of congenitally depressed rats.

I'm not sure it's doing my depression much good.

At least I am sleeping well. Mostly.