July 12th – 569,192.

I’m not quite sure why this heat wave has been the cause of my increasing daily word count, but it has to be linked somehow. Yes, the scorching weather is back, we had a couple of cloudy days which gave us some respite but yesterday the sun came back out and temperatures climbed again. Today has been warmer still, and tomorrow is scheduled to be the hottest day of the year so far.

The only link between the weather and my writing that I can see has been the disruption of my sleep pattern resulting in me getting up too early and writing before breakfast. So it’s only eleven o’clock but I’ve managed to get 4,053 words written, and at the same time baked our first ever batch of biscotti, which are currently sitting on cooling racks downstairs. The smell of vanilla and almond and cooking permeates the house and I’m sitting here writing this and salivating. In fact I’ve had to push the laptop a bit further away from me than usual, just to make sure I don’t drool on the keyboard – neither an edifying prospect nor anything other than a disgusting image. Personally, I take keyboard hygiene quite seriously, so let’s not go there, hey?