Tuesday, March 1

I spend the morning getting back into writing mode. This involves a lot of reading, so I flip between one and the other. I have still maintained my daily targets, even with yesterday’s meetings. I have also reread a lot of books at the speed of light looking for that quotation that I can’t seem to find.

Yesterday one of the drains at the side of the house collapsed a bit under the weight of the snow sliding off the roof. At lunch time I decide to go out and fix it. As I suspected, when I looked last night, the fitting that holds the drain up has got pushed out of its holder and this presents a wonderful 3D origami puzzle that takes me an hour and several screwdrivers to solve.

Have I solved it? Yes, for the moment: the melting snow flows down the drain without coming over. Will it survive another record-breaking storm: probably not, but we won’t know until it happens, and hopefully it never will.

While doing this I look around and notice a lantern buried in the snow. I also notice some footprints that turn out to belong to the rabbit that comes around here regularly. I get out my phone and do some photography.