Hope for book-lovers

I’ve just come back from the bank at Knaphill, a village that used to have quite a number of shops, greengrocer’s, two small supermarkets, even a book shop, once. Then Sainsbury’s came along, less than a mile away, and gradually, shops started closing and people vanished. But after a while, new pavements were put down, trees planted and a few raised beds with small shrubs and plants appeared, and then, though it couldn’t hold on to its fruit shop, some professional offices took over shops. Gradually, partly perhaps because it has easy, and free parking, it has begun to attract more people. Today I saw that one of the old supermarkets, which has been empty for a long time is being converted to a smart new library. The old one is a single story building with a corrugated iron roof. Even if they are going to fill this new place with computers, it was really nice to see this act of faith.

It was bitterly cold out and I scampered back to the car and home as soon as possible. Having spotted snowdrops in a neighbouring garden, I checked if I had any. Delighted to say there were four or five flower heads. I hope to see them doubling up each year.

It was a fairly unexciting weekend, but I spoke to both my kids. I caught up with the ironing and took dictation and have now got several invoices to print out. M completely forgot to watch rugby, which was a shame. I still have a number of things to do, including write second short story, if I’m to submit it by mid-Feb; read The Poisonwood Bible for the reading circle on Thursday. (I doubt if I’ll succeed, but I did read it a few years ago, so some things will come back to me.) Start bookkeeping for VAT return due at the end of the month; print, post and file copies of invoices, and a number of small things, which always take longer than expected.