'Eternal love is not possible / Any other love is not worth the trouble '.

Sophie is harnessed up and taken out on a lead this morning. Just as well. She's in one of her feisty ' Where are the cats. Let me at them !' moods. Being on a lead doesn't stop her from standing on her hind legs and checking all the walls for interlopers.

At the war memorial she is greeted by three red eyed village mothers who have just dropped their little ones off for their first morning at school. The mothers are in an emotional state . One little girl didn't want to go in and had to be 'encouraged'. That '' You'll love it when you get inside "  conversation. The two little boys skipped through the door without looking back. The mothers aren't sure which of these reactions is the more upsetting. In four hours they'll be back outside the school waiting to collect them.

Back at The Rickety Old Farmhouse Sophie positions herself under a garden bench. A secret spot safe from passing eagles and big brothers.

From this invisible spot she can maintain a running commentary on world events. Sophie, it must be said, is not a quiet dog.

Angus has finished  the 960 pages of Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad. Epic in every sense. Not so much a story of a battle as a gentle and at times stirring tale about workers and teachers and orphans. Probably a better work than Life and Fate. 

One of the ( many ) characters quotes a resonantly  beautiful line from the poet Lermontov: 'Eternal love is not possible / Any other love is not worth the trouble '.