This is how it is

You expect the day to be a difficult one when you find the corpse of a headless rat outside your bedroom door at 6.30 in the morning. Then when you turn the lights on and the fuse blows and you are left alone, with rat, in the dark. And yesterday the bill came from the vat man, a fine, three times the amount you went over the limit by ( without noticing due to financial ignorance on a large scale ) in February of last year, and that is with a 50% reduction for ' self- registration', and in all of the following months you were below the limit but will have to pay vat on all earnings during that time. And you have to take your daughter, dressed as an elf, to Tescos, to bag shopping to raise money for their school trip to Dubai.

So, walking around the village with the dogs it is a bonus to see a fox loping across the winter field in early morning sunlight. Later, three foxes in the field at the bottom of the lane, brightest red and beautiful. Then on return from the supermarket ( which would have been pleasant as not busy until they spoiled my experience with loud and horrendous Christmas music  made worse by other shoppers singing along ) I found some time to sit and work.
Working on a large drawing of  hares dancing. A diptych. The peace of mind I find in drawing is difficult to describe and I hope to steal hours to myself to work in the days ahead. I know that I should be working on The Ice Bear, but can't, whereas this I can come and go from.

In my head; lapwings, red foxes with bright tails, red kites with wide wings and forked tails, barn owls on hushed wings over golden moors, angels resting with wings spread, a charm of gold finches, a woman with a crown of dancing hares, and the new moon in a hare's eye.