990918.1337 watermill , st mary’s

in my tent . the equinoctial gales have arrived . i have detected a sense of expectation since i returned to the islands on wednesday . yesterday there was open speculation on whether the winds would come for the weekend . i was in the workshop until about one this morning ( yeah , my sorry existence ) . around ten o’clock fitful squalls began to whip around the roof and windows . by the time i’d biked back to the cabin , baked a mackerel and got to bed it was four and the wind was building steadily .

it reached a peak between ten and eleven this morning . i was woken by the roar of it tearing through the trees and the rain lashing against my tent , its panels bucking and shaking . for the first time i felt anxious about whether the outer canopy would be torn away , but it is a sturdy construction ( though less watertight than i hoped ) and soon i drifted back to sleep .

the wind has subsided a little now , though it may rise again later . the rain has gone and intermitently there is sun . but over the last couple of weeks there is no mistaking that autumn has come . the air has a hint of chill in it , the bracken is red , the agapanthus stems wither , the elms shed their leaves . what a glorious summer this has been . everywhere there is a sense of sadness at its passing . there will still be clear-skied tranquil days , but the ferocity is gone from the sun and the sea is no longer a hospitable element . soon i will have to leave my tent for more robust accommodation . the islands’ mood changes once more .

for no reason i can fathom some people receive attached photos intact and others do not . there doesn’t seem to be any correlation to platform , mail browser , configuration or even hair colour . i have experimented with different jpeg variants to no effect . if this is affecting a significant proportion of recipients i shall stop sending images by email . to guage the extent of the problem i’d be grateful if everyone who’s receiving garbled code instead of pretty pics could let me know .

: cH