FORGETTING ABOUT THE THING

The Professor and I were so careless of capturing today's eclipse that we were in the supermarket when the sky went dark.  So this illustration from the Usborne book 'Who were the Vikings?' seems appropriate.  David Cuzik's witty illustrations make these books such fun.  We are into Vikings at the moment, preparing for a trip to York with the VIP in a couple of weeks. 
 
In 1978, I visited the awesome Þingvellir in Iceland, where the Althing (Thing!) used to meet.  Iceland is so raw and naked; it's hard to escape the the sense of how precarious our place on this planet is and how it is constantly rocking and belching below our feet. Apparently 1 in 10 of us live in an earthquake zone - sobering thought. 

Meanwhile a cake is bubbling away in the oven.  Who knows if it will crack wide open or sink in the middle.  It's our daughter's birthday today and she and the VIP are coming for tea and cake. When we were planning this with the VIP on Sunday he insisted there should be 34 candles on the cake.  We've settled for a 3 and a 4 candle, plus one sparkler that he thinks is a volcano.