Wind still hot. Islands still visible but slowly fading.

Nice thing about calimas are balmy nights. The hot wind eases towards evening and we eat outside in shorts and tank-tops. Up here this is not so usual. Last night we fed Handsome too and sat out till nearly 10. Luxury. Hot nights not so good for sleeping though. Also wind got up furiously in small hours, knocked bottles and glasses off the table outside, banged doors and windows. Again had eased by morning.

Morning scrubbing. Beloved seems yet again to have used every saucepan we own... the downside of a cooking male. Cat out after being penned in all day and night yesterday. He caught a mouse when we came in last night and there ensued stand-off between him, mouse and border terrier who considers rodents her perk, forget any resident feline. In vain this time. Mouse skittered away a bit, but died. Cat and dog lost interest in its corpse which lay on the rug till Beloved removed it. Next excitement was a cockroach, uncaught, though granny fled for the cucharacha spray. (Ah, ah, all those years of music in which she thought 'la cucharacha' was something glamourous instead of one of those creepy irridescent, over-large orange- brown insects which infest everything if you don't watch it. Ours lurk in the septic tank. We only suffer the odd one, they don't overrun us as they do in more urban areas here provided we keep plug holes etc blocked up. We do.)


Agriculture minimal at the moment, apart from the odd patch of sweet potatoes, pumpkins and some lentils. Our neighbours have raised a line of humps and planted something in their garden. Also set out lines of white stones to mark something else. We don't plant anything. Might try a pomegranate once the rains start. After yesterday's constant blast of hot wind on them granny's nasturtiums are not happy. There is a coating of red dust on the dining-room table. Granny p