{'[0]'}[5th August 1980]

[Redbook2:168-169][19800805:2325]{'[0]'}[5^th August 1980]

19800805.2325

I finished [writing] '[0]'* at about seven or eight on Sunday evening – except for the last two or three winding-up pages. I went up the hill to sit on the gatepost and watch the most beautiful Sunset. I thought: all I need now is for a deer to come past me through this gateway. Within a few minutes, as the heifers were licking my shoes, I heard a crackle, turned and saw a deer walk into the field from the wood. It stood looking at me for about half a minute, then, refusing my silent suggestion that it should come to me, walked off down the hill.

I had become so involved with the last part of ['0'] that I could not sleep on Saturday night – much. But the Sunset** brought me some peace and enabled me to finish with the last few pages, which I may have to rewrite. I stepped outside last thing – clear starlit night – and thought: 'All I need is a meteorite' and there was one.

I did not sleep excellently on Sunday night either. I was up at 5.30am. I had been dreading the return to London; but in the car driving up, thinking still of the Wheel of Fire and [...]'s Dance of Death, I found myself singing all I knew of the Messiah, with tears in my eyes.

*[Subsequently renamed]

**[On Sunday, presumably]

[continues]

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