the weather is still hot

I started this entry with a note of "am wearing lower-necked t-shirts than usual", as the current heat combined with the current style made the purchase of some new ones from M&S a good idea, but I really wasn't sure where to take it from there.

Was (re)reading just-arrived copy of Van Gulik's Haunted Monastery / Chinese Maze Murders, too. Not that it made me any the cooler, but it was good to read them again.

(Also, it is most annoying the way that you go to the supermarket just to pick up a few things, and find yourself justifying a fullscale shop. Bah.)

---

Miranda

My dear one is mine as mirrors are lonely,
As the poor and sad are real to the good king,
And the high green hill sits always by the sea.

Up jumped the Black Man behind the elder tree,
Turned a somersault and ran away waving;
My Dear One is mine as mirrors are lonely.

The Witch gave a squawk; her venomous body
Melted into light as water leaves a spring,
And the high green hill sits always by the sea.

At his crossroads, too, the Ancient prayed for me,
Down his wasted cheeks tears of joy were running:
My dear one is mine as mirrors are lonely.

He kissed me awake, and no one was sorry;
The sun shone on sails, eyes, pebbles, anything,
And the high green hill sits always by the sea.

So to remember our changing garden, we
Are linked as children in a circle dancing:
My dear one is mine as mirrors are lonely,
And the high, green hill sits always by the sea.

-- W. H. Auden