Things I (still) can't find

• Tape.
• Small lamp (to put near my bed - it's endlessly irritating to have to get up out of bed to turn off the lights when one is finished reading and ready for sleep)

        I know it's only two items, but they're two items the lack of which is driving me crazy. I keep needing tape for little things, and it keeps not being there. This is difficult for me, being the kind of person who constantly carries both tape and scissors on her person at all times. You never know when you'll need them.
        I was, however, successful in getting my bathroom drain to unclog. It drained terribly slowly. I purchased a cheap bottle of drain cleaner, dumped it in, and fifteen minutes later - hey presto! - my sink now functions like normal sinks should.
        Being domestic can at times be utterly satisfying.


        Amersham, yesterday, was lovely. John met me at the station and we drove around, absorbing the countryside. There are a lot of trees, large and unabashed stripes of woodland along the roadsides. It reminded me of Michigan. All that old growth, grey and tangled, but still shot through with greeny gold.
        The whole day was that way, particularly at the park at St Alban's, with its wide open green spaces and scruffy trees and jungle gyms (complete with small children in brightly colored galoshes).
        It was remarkably light, sun on my face, but shadows everywhere else. The sky was dark, with brooding clouds hanging opaquely overhead. But all around the horizons, suffused throughout, was a sense of soft gold illumination. Not that the senses reported any of this - the wind was chill and my skin prickled, my eyes registered the dull iron sky; nonetheless, there was an unshakable texture of warmth in the air. It felt like the air at sunset after a long summer day. But it was chilly, unquestionably autumn. It felt like fall, but it tasted like summer. Silver and gold all laced in the atmosphere under those dark heavy clouds.