Thin and diffuse, the river still lead-and-silver while the sky is blue only somewhere up there above the scrim of high white clouds. But every now and then, a streak of sun breaks through, then fades again. It's been so long that we've had noting but rain and wind, yesterday darkness all day; this is such a relief. Water relatively low, so lots of seagulls sitting on pilings. Suddenly, all rise into the air, swoop and circle together, shoot off in different directions. It was as though, on the pilings, they'd had a meeting, decided which sector of sky each would cover, and went off to do it.