Mice, birds, books and sheets in the wind.

Days slip by. Outside a new moon is bright but slight in a blue, dark sky. Walking the evening away with new camera in a boggy place. There are rabbits in plenty in the dry places and the dogs love to run, and the daisies have gone to sleep and closed their eyes against the coming dark. The day has been spent in painting four and twenty white mice, getting a print from Jane, walking in bluebell woods at Abermawr.

And we found a new and beautiful path with a fast flowing narrow river and stepping stones and an ancient watercourse through an old stone wall.

At the beginning of the month I was sent another book from Mr B's in Bath. Always a mystery, this package was wonderfully filled with promise, a heavy weight. And sure enough when I opened it the cover was beautiful, the pages smooth and the blurb inviting. But I was still reading Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, not because it was dull and slow going, rather because I had been so busy with work. So I pushed aside work for short periods in the day and sank into Paul Murray's wonderful book and now am lost at sea with We The Drowned. I do love Mr B's. They just have such a great idea of what I will love.

Some things that I have done over the past few days.

1. Counted white mice from one to four and twenty.

2. Watched the azure swallows fly low across the fields.

3. Stood in the garden at five in the morning and listened to the cuckoo call across silver frosted fields.

4. Spoke to woman in US about new project and meetings and still, in a way, feel none the wiser, but quietly hoping to make the right choices. Exciting.

5. Sold a small painting and wrapped it and packed it and sent it out on a very long journey across to the other side of the wide wide wonderful world.

6. Lost myself in a vicious sea battle.

7. Walked, in bluebell woods down the path to the sea, in a bog filled with irises and king cups. And Hannah said she saw a dragon fly.

8. Bought a new camera, very much like the old one, but clean, a Nikon D3000, from my wonderful camera advisor, Ivan, at Celtic Vision. He is still thinking about what I should get to replace my small camera that I lost.

9. Talked to the weasels.

10. Made the bed with clean sheets that smell so good, though not as good as sheets that have danced with the wind on a washing line in sunshine.

11. Looked after my neighbour's horses which was a great pleasure, going out early and late into the field and wandering among them and checking the water and leaning against their dark heavy sides that smelled of horses and grass and summer while swallows flew between us. We shared an apple and they took the small pieces from my fingers with gentle velvet lips and crunched the sweetness.