Today I have been hidden away like a hermit working at my book - several more pages past the first drafting stage and the word count is 50,000 and still rising. It may not sound as though I've done all that much, but I am also working on the index as I go, and everything takes time.

Yesterday's walk was like a balm to my soul. It gave me energy somehow, like recharging my batteries. And in the evening I came across this wonderful extract from a 19th century poem in welsh by THomas Telynog Evans that I would like to share with you because it's so beautiful:

"In lovely harmony the wood has put on its green mantle, and summer is on its throne, playing its string-music; the willow, whose harp hung silent when it was withered in winter, now gives forth its melody - Hush! Listen! The world is alive!"