Day 28 – at Rörbäcks

Rain days require careful planning, as regards to movement around the van that is.

It was torrential all day today. Thunder mixed in. If it wasn’t for the dog I probably would have stayed in. But his expression in this photograph summarises much..

So we went out a couple of times, just a wander around the forest, and to the sea.

It was a week of rain in the French Pyrenees in October 2020 that helped my decision to upgrade the van. Those days I was in the T5 on a £15 Ikea bed with the dog next to me.

We coped much better in Grazelema last year, when it was four successive days of rain, but there were times when it eased off.

There’s no point in losing sleep about the interior of the van getting dirt and a damp floor. I’ve towels around also.

It definitely easier in the Crafter, but still somewhat restrictive.

One bonus is the amount of reading I get through. I read Morandini’s Snow, Dog, Foot this morning. It’s about an old man living alone in an isolated mountain shack, with just a dog for company, revelling in the silence and seclusion…sounds familiar. It’s really good. And also I finished Dan Saladino’s Eating to Extinction, which I’ve had on the go for more than a week now. It’s another really strong book from the Wainwright Conservation Prize Shortlist. I’ve reviewed them both, over at Goodreads.

I spent some time looking at the route ahead, and putting together a list of recommended books for friends who I stayed with in Provence last October, with apologies that it’s taken so long..

That list..

O Caledonia – Elspeth Barker (Scotland, coming of age)

This Thing of Darkness – Harry Thompson (historic, British, Fitzroys voyages)

The Proof – Cesar Aira (Argentina, humour, novella)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers (America, southern)

The Restraint of Beasts – Magnus Mills (British, humour)

Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter (British, fantasy)

World’s Fair – EL Doctorow (America, historic, coming of age)

Train Dreams – Denis Johnson (America, novella, historic)

The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles – Roy Jacobsen (Finland, War)

A Woman in the Polar Night – Christiane Ritter (Swiss, Svalbard, non fiction)

Moon Lake – Eudora Welty (America, historic, novella)

The Gallows Pole – Ben Myers (British, historic, Yorkshire – Cumbria)

All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr (war, France, historic)

A Gentleman In Moscow – Amor Towles (Russia, war)

The Notebook – Agota Kristoff (Hungary, war, novella)

The Hoarder – Jess Kidd (Ireland, humour)

The Orphanage – Serhiy Zhadan (Ukraine).

The Colony – Audrey Magee (Longlisted for Booker 2022)