Project 365 day 281: almost dusk

It was almost too late for photos by the time I got J out for our walk today. The sun was sinking behind the hill and much of the village was already in deep shade, but from the bottom of the valley, opposite the last houses in Duck Street, we caught the last rays illuminating the side of the valley, beyond the tall, dry seed heads in the hedgerow. 

I have been doing things with J almost all day today, which I enjoy when I've decided it's what I need to do and therefore avoid fretting about all the overdue jobs in the house and garden which I am not getting done. I supported her at her writing group, which is a nice, chatty and mutually supportive group of disparate people, and had promised that because the longstanding Friday watch party is currently on hold, I would watch a movie with her over lunch. We chose Selma, currently on BBC iPlayer, which tells the story of the march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery in 1964, led by Martin Luther King, which was instrumental in pushing President Lyndon Johnson to enact the voting rights bill which forced the southern states to register black voters without the manufactured obstacles and intimidation they had hitherto used to hold onto their almost exclusively white electorate. It was interesting, powerful and moving, particularly the inclusion of archive footage in the final sections of the film. 

We indulged in Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dessert before the planned leaf-collecting walk; J has an idea for an animation experiment, so on our return I transferred the variously coloured leaves into her flower press, a gift from my mum long ago which is now filled to capacity.  P made a fire this evening, our first of the autumn, cooked another of our large cauliflowers from the garden with pasta and sauce, and made me nostalgic with the Strawbs compilation CD. When we met in autumn 1978, early in my first term at university, he introduced me to his large vinyl collection of their albums, so the songs always stir up memories of that time. It's been a lovely autumn day.