Never mind the moon today, the wind is blowing a gale, squally and angry. I got into the water at Lawson Pool this morning with all a perfect calm, but three laps in, mighty gusts began to lift the poolside umbrellas, hurling kick boards from their various resting places, upending loaded bags from seats. And the water surface became a shipwreck of leaves, bark and unsuspecting lady-beetles.

On the way back I saw two wedding cars heading up the Mountains, elegant Bentleys with celebratory bunting and an excited cargo. I wondered how their nuptials might go today, with the wind blasting like a madman - all the hairstyles messed, the veils flapping distractedly like washing on the line, the guests rubbing their eyes for grit as they move almost side-ways from church to reception. It is not a day for stillness.

Then I thought about Larkin's Wedding Wind, and reproduce these opening lines for you. It is as good a poem as any written.

'The wind blew all my wedding-day,
And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind;
And a stable door was banging, again and again,
That he must go and shut it, leaving me
Stupid in candlelight, hearing rain,
Seeing my face in the twisted candlestick,
Yet seeing nothing.'

It ends very happily though, with the bride wondering,

'Can it be borne, this bodying-forth by wind
Of joy my actions turn on, like a thread
Carrying beads?'

I hope all weddings today are blessed by a wedding wind.