Hello dear readers, I hope I find you all well today.

From early childhood I have had a vivid imagination especially when it comes to cloud watching, it is amazing what shapes you can seen in the clouds when linked with imagination.  Today the sky is blue with clouds flitting across and so far I have seen a dog chasing his ball with tail curled up behind him in pleasure and a tree with strong  trunk and wide heavily laden branches, but how quickly the wind changes their persona to become just another fluffy white cloud, a wonderful if somewhat day-dreamy pastime, is it any wonder my teachers used to call my attention back from the world outside to classroom to inside again!  I have seen books of the pictures that clouds can depict, asserting that I am not alone in being dreamy headed, or is it observant, why I wonder, do I find the clouds so evocative, even a stormy day's clouds hold wonderful pictures.  “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.”  Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds  How many of you are cloud watchers?

Yesterday was a really busy day, working in the morning and not getting home till mid afternoon, and a quick visit to the supermarket.  Yes I did take my produce bags, but I didn't use them, instead I used a jute shopping bag and put all the loose vegetables into that, and as most supermarkets now have labelling scales for the people who wish to use the self service checkouts, I weighed the items and printed the label, stuck each label inside the jute bag and handed this to the cashier, which he then hand scanned, commented how much quicker this was than zapping each bag through and why doesn't everyone do it.  It did take a little longer and you need to be prepared to pack and unpack the veggies to weigh and they pack much more efficiently taking up all the available space in the bag, but how pleasant to come home with a bag of fruit and veg, not two bags of plastic, air, fruit and veg. I will keep this up and hone it to be more streamlined, but for now I am happy, a little more towards helping the environment.

Today sees the official opening of the winter olympics in Russia, although beset by horrific homophobic hatred within the state, may I wish all those taking part every success.

As always, thank you for joining me today, have a lovely weekend and I hope that all is well wherever in the world you are.

Clouds

I’d have to be really quick

to describe clouds -

a split second’s enough

for them to start being something else.

Their trademark:

they don’t repeat a single 

shape, shade, pose, arrangement.

Unburdened by memory of any kind, 

they float easily over the facts.

What on earth could they bear witness to? 

They scatter whenever something happens.

Compared to clouds, 

life rests on solid ground, 

practically permanent, almost eternal.

Next to clouds

even a stone seems like a brother, 

someone you can trust, 

while they’re just distant, flighty cousins.

Let people exist if they want,

and then die, one after another:

clouds simply don't care

what they're up to

down there.

And so their haughty fleet

cruises smoothly over your whole life

and mine, still incomplete.

They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone.

They don't have to be seen while sailing on.

Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh