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Spring in Melbourne, which means the morning libation on the balcony can finally happen without a jacket. The jacarandas are thinking about it. Same order every day. Wash hands in khernips (water, a pinch of salt). Light the little oil lamp for Hestia in its glass chimney. Pour a splash of watered wine into the libation bowl. Then the Homeric Hymn, read aloud in a terrible accent: 'Hestia, you who tend the holy house... come now into this house, and bestow grace upon my song.' She gets the first offering and the last, always. Lamp out before I leave for work. A goddess of the hearth would not approve of me burning the flat down.