Weekend in the country

My first weekend down at my parents' house (where I grew up) since I got back from the States, for my birthday. A quarter-century didn't seem like a time I particularly wanted to celebrate in any elaborate way, for some reason, and was spent peacefully in my old birthday rituals, somehow reaffirming a connection to my homeplace. The weather was, as is traditional, beautiful - an Indian summer, eating birthday lunch outside with sunhats, it was so warm. We picked quinces and pumpkins, as we always do, and ate a lamb tagine with quinces. A lovely walk over the marshes and picking huge, soft, pinkish beige parasol mushrooms, beaded with dew, in the morning for breakfast. Pints in the Nelson in Southwold with friends and scrabble before bed (I won, which was precisely as it should be!) Good food and delicious wine, and the most fantastic present of a life membership to the London Library - an incredible, wonderful luxury - thank you, parents!

It capped off a week that saw my life get steadily busier. Racing through the rain to a meeting with Thames and Hudson on our book. Going to meet the Church Commissioners to talk about a potential new project, we drove through Parliament Square where a huge demonstration was going on against the new Racial and Religious Hatred Act by all sorts of Christians - a strange coincidence. It was possibly the most ethnically diverse demonstration I have seen in London, due to the good turnout form the black churches and other groups. And some exciting news - it looks like I'll be going to India in a week or so, for work! My first time in the subcontinent. I have my jabs tomorrow.