Paint and Rainbows

Monday 6th September

Day 138

The aroma of fresh basil leaves pounded in a mortar with garlic and sweet pinenuts......the perfume of apple and banana cake seeping out of the oven...... I cook deliberately to mask the smell of silicone sealant and polyfiller and undercoat paint, thick in the air of the house.

All day the doors stay closed against slashing rain and wind, trapping chemicals in the fabric of the walls. I feel cut off from the lifeline of my kitchen while a man on a ladder shaves dust into the fruit bowl.

And then this evening, turning the pages of a photograph album, we glance out of the window and catch sight of a rainbow fragment - half a faintly coloured arch disappearing into hurrying clouds. A bite of sun, a mouthful of blue sky and then it’s gone - eaten up by vapour, painted back into mist. But like fragrant cake, its fragile visit will linger in my memory much longer than the smell of emulsion.