Peaceful

A couple of the barges that moor in the Bancroft Basin in Stratford were moved further from the river during last week's floods, and their new positions produced unusual reflections around some of today's gulls. In some cases these were too busy even for my taste, but in this one the pastel shades of the ice cream barge have created a rather soothing atmosphere. The gull looks quite relaxed and meditative too - when they cross their wing tips like this I always think they're taking some down time - and overall it's a pretty peaceful scene.

I was rather less peaceful for much of the day: having decided early on that I wouldn't be going owling - partly because of the hordes of people I assumed would be up on the scarp today, partly because the ground was a swamp the last time I was there and I'd like it to have time to dry out a bit before my next trip, and partly because I had a huge list of things that urgently needed doing at home - every time the sun emerged I almost howled with frustration. By the time R and I got back from Stratford this afternoon I was in such a bad temper I decided to take it out on the Christmas tree, and once I'd dismantled that I felt that I couldn't stand any of the other decorations still being up either, so I pushed on though and removed them all. I'm not sure that R's agenda for today had included the complete excision of Christmas, but he stepped up and pitched in, and by the time we paused to throw a quick meal together, everything was down. An hour afterwards it was all boxed and put away, and by the time we collapsed on the sofa in front of some silly TV the house was back to normal.