I'm so fed up with the rain that I'm not even inspired to think of a title for today's posting. I can see that the UK is having a terrible time, and Portugal is also bowing under the weight of water. The waves have been up to ten metres high, gale force winds and it has rained non-stop since December. Sunday was a red alert day and the winds were scary up here in Sintra.

Writing a poem a week appears to be my normal rhythm. Then hours and weeks of editing go into them, so the writing goes on for a long time.

I've just started a new online course with The Poetry School with Kathryn Maris as the tutor and I'm very excited by it. It's called What are the rules and when can we break them? We've just submitted our first poems for discussion and I had a wonderful time writing a poem, as a sort of free-write, ignoring all the rules that have come my way since I put on a poetry hat. As a result it is the longest poem I've ever written, very different to my previous tidy poems. There's a great feeling of energy within the group and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.

This posting looks forlorn without a picture so here is photo of clouds on Monday morning after the storms.