And so we saunter into May, with the weather warming up in a misleading sort of way, as it’s forecast to be very cold during the latter part of the coming weekend. On May Day itself, last Friday, it was mixed but not too cold. After receiving the groceries from Des I updated the Compline for Tuesday (our eight-strong group is now Zooming fortnightly), and because his battery went flat at the supermarket we decided to take the car for a run and end up with a walk at Dunston Common.

The best-laid plans. Dunston Common car park was thoughtfully taped off, and so I drove on to the lane above Caistor Roman Camp, where I often park for a walk down the lanes and across the fields. There are usually two or three cars there. On this occasion there were between 12 and 20. So much for blocking off car parks. We eased our way between walkers and back into the city, where I went for a walk in Carey’s Meadow, where there was one car in the small car park. Dot went home to take the washing in, because rain was threatening, but then joined me. It was quite pleasant – not too many people and only a few spots of rain. In the evening we watched the last two episodes of Blood, which was quite a good thriller.

Saturday was slightly warmer, with clouds but no rain. I changed the water filter, started sorting out all my Paston stuff and sent off some money to charity. We walked in the Rosary.

On Sunday the weather was pretty nondescript and uninviting; so I did my walking in the house. We had our usual Zoom service with St Luke’s and then in the evening an experimental session with St Augustine’s, featuring much news-sharing and a lectio divina from Anna. After this we watched Van der Valk, a reincarnation of an old series with good characters but a script verging on the mediocre.

Next day was warmer, and I finished Underland, a book by Robert Macfarlane that David bought me for Christmas. Clearly not a book you read quickly, but absolutely brilliant in its description of the various underground areas of the planet. Some of his exploits were remarkable: I’m quite surprised he’s still alive. And his writing is beautifully poetic.

Sarah rang (she is very good at getting in touch with her “flock”), and Dot and I had a 20-minute chat with her. Dot has just discovered how to use both telephone receivers at once, which means we can have three-way chats. Obviously, because we can, we do. I did a bit more of the Paston stuff but didn’t actually finish it till Tuesday morning. Later Dot and I walked up Bishopgate and back, and in the evening watched Killing Eve, followed by The Sense of an Ending, which was a very good film about how we tell ourselves stories about what our life was like, when in fact…

Yesterday a beautiful package of cheese arrived from Neal’s Yard, ordered by David from Canada. We’ve already had some of the Cheddar, which is superb. You can actually just sit and eat it without accompaniment, and there’s not many cheeses you can say that about. Did a bit of Paston work again, starting with some editing and ending up with writing a page on Captain Robert Paston, who was shipwrecked off Nova Scotia in 1711. Fascinated? Here’s the link. We also walked up to the Rosary again, though we were both feeling tired.

At the end of the day I got a surprise e-mail from Canada (via Joy McCall) about one of my poems – Alien, which I wrote back in 2008 or 2009. Apparently this Canadian teacher has been using it to discuss poetry with her classes and wanted to know more about it. She was surprised not to find it on the Internet or discussed in learned journals. I like this woman. So this morning I wrote her an e-mail back telling her what it was really about and saying a few other things about poetry. I also sent her another poem, White Wolf, which she will probably hate. Quite exciting.

Alien

There is an alien in the garden
huge and shiny
lying there, behind the hedge

He is not dead:
we see him from the window
breathing in and out
under the wind and rain

We have seen inside him too:
he has been crying:
his stomach is wet and tastes
like another planet

We have swum there:
he has swallowed us whole
but we escaped
three times into the storm

The alien watches:
he is waiting for us
to come back