My mother's umbrella performed its proper apotropaic function: I carried it outside and within fifteen minutes the rain had stopped, although of course it remained raw and damp and gusty.

Excellent. I'm always delighted when an umbrella serves its proper function. (Rewaxing my jacket does seem to have kept the rain away from here for a couple of days, at least.)

I returned from the library with several books of Kipling and Derek Walcott.

Excellent. I just had to look up Walcott*--he sounds interesting, and I'll have to check out his work further.

*At first I thought you'd written "Derek Warfield," and I was about to say that one of my friends has been playing with him a lot, lately, but then I realised that you were speaking of someone else.