Too many words

Yesterday’s chick adventure, put me in mind of Fang, the little grey squirrel who befriended me during the Plague Year. It’s been five years so I guess she might be dead by now given most grey squirrels die in the first two years. However, she was a tough little thing and could live to a ripe old age of 15 years. I hope so. I remember her with great fondness.

Not that I saw any squirrels today. Apart from a couple of deer in the front garden and hordes of birds, I didn’t see any wildlife. And that was even though I took the girls up Mount Trosa and into the woods after lunch.

It was a glorious day, warm enough to wear shorts. Well, for me anyway. I noted that the only people I saw were wearing winter coats and beanies. I did wonder whether they’d stepped through a multiverse portal from a frozen earth. Or maybe I’m just mad. They did give me strange looks.

Apart from the people in their winter coats, I also saw a woman jogging, wearing an all in one, black running outfit with long legs and sleeves. Maybe she started off cold but, having jogged a while, she would have been a bit steamy. I was steamy enough having forced myself to huff and puff up the ski slope. Wearing her jogging gear, I’d have melted away to a puddle in very little time.

Actually, that paragraph reminds me of my writing session with Nicoline today. Sometimes, I have a habit of writing sentences containing far too many words. When attempting to write something coherent in a foreign language, I have learned that they are easier when short, and stop at each comma before progressing.

The trouble is, I get a bit carried away, and my brain can’t conceive of short sentences. Like this one.

So, our session today, like last week, featured quite a bit of red pen. But, while my writing may not be getting more succinct, my pronunciation is a bit better. I hope.

In the meanwhilst (a clause that, no doubt, does not translate into Swedish) Mirinda was at uni all day today, so I was left to my own devices which meant doing laundry, household tasks and walking the dogs. She then surprised me having Reading Hour on the deck in the glorious late afternoon sunshine.

The girls were draped all over me. I must have exhausted them, clambering around the rocks and woods earlier.

Or maybe they were just too hot in their winter coats.