Ashes

The Periodic Englishman " izup" and running again. He has begun to use slang expressions. He is still at a tentative phase, not quite sure how to mix the spices and whether one should wear gangsters' argot before Labor Day ( or Bank Holiday, if you will ). He is still getting his "sea legs", so watch out: there may be a few zingers and double-entendres... or triple-entendres of which he was aware of only two.
He seems to have recovered from his bout of whatever it was at the local Hotel Dieu, and is quietly leading a rural existence with tabbies and labradors, very redolent of those antique still-life paintings of which we were once so fond: meadow and lea, dog and cat, peaceable kingdom.

Amen