Authorlouisa

3BT – buds, finally, locating

1. The buds look like french knots tied to branches. Heavy drops drip onto the snow below.

2. After three years of wanting, I finally get a little shelving unit for my side of the office. The files, books and seed boxes that have cluttered up my desk for the interim time fit perfectly into their new home: they’re still accessible but I no longer have to worry about being buried under a paper avalanche.

3. Lily sniff-sniff-sniffs the air, the ground and the usual hiding spots until she finds her treat.

3BT – running, happy accident, sweet/punny

1. She runs around in and out of the water, amongst the wild garlic and other early shoots, while I stand on the grassy knoll and chat.

2. I’d wanted flat purple felt but the grey Swaledale shows through. I moan and grumble about it until I realise I prefer the resulting marl.

3. The sweet tanginess of the chilli sauce. I mop it up with a chunk of naan.

3b. We spend so much time punning and mocking each other’s antics that we don’t have time to watch the film. I don’t mind in the slightest.

3BT – breakfast, small thing/big difference, colourway

1. Dry crisp bacon and sweet fluffy pancakes for breakfast. AWESOME. John made it all, including the accompanying tea and coffee, but I claim partial credit since it was my idea.

2. I add “the thin plastic slip that now comes with Ikea allen keys” to my list of simple little things that deserve more recognition because they make the task at hand so much easier. (Also on the list: the blade attached to sewing machines for cutting thread and the pierce point on tomato puree tub lids.)

3. A clean mid-blue, a rich purple and a blood red: my favourite colourway yet on my Ann Perkins blanket. And I get two and two-thirds squares made in a single (slightly longer than normal) evening — such an increase from my “one square a night” a fortnight ago!

3BT – blocking, balance, thrown together

1. I love the transformation that occurs when textiles are blocked: it somehow makes the colours clearer as well as the shapes.

2. The addition of a neutral round improves the colour balance. I gleefully show off the change.

3. It’s funny how creative our lunches become when neither of us can be bothered making the short walk to the shops – funny and strangely delicious.

3BT – pottering in the garden, time to spare, much needed

1. I think Ginger the chicken is scared by her own adventuring: normally she won’t let me touch her but she lets me guide her from under the holly bush and pick her up to return her to the garden.

1b. The dull clunk as Little Red taps the greenhouse glass.

1c. The pots fit perfectly in the tin pails: one fuchsia, two freesia and two phlox.

2. Wednesdays always feel a bit rushed and chaotic but today is mysteriously relaxed. I get various chores finished, have time for a spot of spur-of-the-moment creativity and still catch the early bus to drama.

3. I ferret around in the depths of my bag then hold aloft my trophy: gloves!

3BT – day off: lunch, park, addicted

We both had a rare day off mid-week to go for lunch and work on our own hobby projects and what-have-you. It’s been lovely!

1. The lemon sweetness of the fish contrasts beautifully with the smoky casserole. It reminds me of meals past: of cod and dover sole at Sous Le Nez a decade ago and the similar casserole I made last week (though I put lentils with the merguez sausages rather than beans).

1b. Melancholy dogs peek around the chair legs and people legs to keep an eye on each other.

1c. A fresh cream bun and a nice cup of tea.

2. Unusually for her, Lily is interested in the lively young springer racing around at the edge of the cricket pitch. The pup wants to meet her too, but, more importantly, wants to protect his toys from the interloper.

2b. That park always surprises me. In my mind’s eye, it’s just a flat stretch of green with a problematic pond at the back but actually, there are copses, a beck, secret slopes and interesting old buildings (or bits of buildings) to wonder about too.

3. Crocheting granny square blankets tickles my micro-reward lobe, just like certain computer games. The end of each round is a little achievement; then the end of each colour; each square; each colourway… It drives me on.