~ greyish blackish

The heatwave - not so bad in Melbourne as Adelaide but bad enough - began last week.

I continued, as is my way, sorting the pieces of my life, adding here, subtracting here - like a watchmaker in his dotage, dithering on, yet to completely abandon hope that a tightened screw there, some tinkering here will miraculously transform his clock into a time machine…

The first few days I barely noticed. It was hot, but surely not in the high thirties as they said. Then came the school fete, where I toiled with Jenny at the face-painting stall. My system began to slow. I hovered in the shade drinking water, wondering how I came to be there…

Then yesterday, Polly and I drove to Lynne’s to pick up the new kitten, Greyish Blackish. Lynne is ‘rattled’ by the heat. She has a hot house, a crisp cardboard box that provides shade but little more. Here I really did begin to feel the heat. Mitch, Nell, and Fenella, the Canadian exchange student, perched on the big squarish grey couch, their faces illumed a faint blue by the screens of their laptops, all of us huddling against the bleaching radiation that was steadily, silently softening the bitumen outside, leaching the life out of everything. I didn’t want to drive Greyish Blackish home in that heat, so I waited, fell asleep on the floor watching Deathproof and when I woke it seemed even hotter…

I slept a long time last night, rose just in time to get the kitten-crazy Polly to school, and then – as is my habit – I put myself to work in front of the computer.

Half an hour later I was asleep again. Now I’m awake, only marginally rested, still with an inclination to stare blankly at cups and pencils. I had a lot of plans for today. The best I can do is write this.

It’s Autumn and this is unseasonable heat. My part of the world is changing. As you drive down the freeway, you see that the rugged shrubs and trees planted on the margins, chosen for their hardiness, are browning. In cracks in the concrete. indomitable weeds are yellowing and breaking away …

Oh, and here is Greyish Blackish. [Because she’s greyish blackish she’s rather hard to photograph.]