I have arranged myself sitting on the draining board with my feet in the sink!  I remember this position described in the book ‘I Capture the Castle’, that I read many years ago, and recently watched again on a DVD I found in a charity shop. I am trying to draw the view looking down from my first floor kitchen window. It is an odd angle, but I can just see the top of the birdbath, and the snow covered pots around the base.

Oliver, my neighbours beautiful white cat is sitting on the path watching the blackbird and pigeons pecking away at the seed I put on a cleared patch of grass. He is twitching his luxuriant fluffy tail, but even though he is a white cat in the snow, the birds always manage to fly off just as he springs towards them!

Ah! I have found my old copy of the book! I didn’t have to look far to find the description, as it is how the story starts.

Chapter One;

‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, My feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board, which I have padded with our dog’s blanket and the tea cosy. I can’t say that I am really comfortable, … but this is the only part of the kitchen where there is any daylight left.  And I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring’.

From- ‘I Capture the Castle’,  by Dodie Smith.