Liquid candlestick

Stopped off near Oxford, to be fed by friends. J's daughter, Miranda Keyes, is an artist in glass. As glass is impossible to photograph well, without special lens &c, this is the best I could do: an incredible delicate candlestick that resembles water flowing upwards.

The day, earlier, was good. We walked by the river Usk in search of a rumoured Osprey. Instead, we say a hobby falcon attack a swallow - twice. The swallow escaped, this time. Rain came & we sheltered beneath corrogated iron. Carrion crows had picked at a sheep carcass but bones not yet clean enough to pick up.

I looked after M in the pm: the carer is calmer now & I have found the right pace for being with M. The key is gentleness, no excitement, no drama & finding things to make her laugh or at least smile.

We sat in the garden at Church Farm & looked at a folder of letters written home from prep school by a 10 year old R: formulaic with flashes of sadness between the lines & the occasional dead pan reference to fires breaking out, or health inspectors going over the dorm "with a tooth pick". (& presumably discovering that the place was crawling with bugs & mould, this being the 70s.)