1. The tree surgeon brings his dogs with him: the little girl watches her human and pines when he dips out of sight while the sleek but strong black lab pads about the garden carefree. Throughout the day, I nip out to check on them and to talk to them, and Katherine comes over earlier than planned to meet them too. I can’t wait until we have our own.
2. Sat up on the sofa, Joe looks almost like a real person.
3. I just don’t know how they make the onions so delicious. I could eat them all day.
1. The world is white when we go to sleep but grey with mist when we wake up. Even on the dullest day though – when the tree line and the ends of the fields are all but invisible – the walk to the post office never fails to cheer me up.
2. I rest my head on Carla’s head, my eye socket accommodating the curve of her skull. Her fur is so soft against my cheek as we breathe together.
3. The moment we realise we’re wearing the same cardigan.
I’ve been neglecting my beautiful things of late. Naughty louisa, naughty.
1. Even though I wake up earlier than normal, I feel thoroughly refreshed and ready for the day. The sun shines brightly into the room.
2. The bar is overrun with babies. There are six downstairs (in three separate parties) and upstairs in the restaurant there is a full antenatal group meeting upstairs. The lovely barman runs to the door whenever someone arrives with a pram to welcome them and point them in the right direction. He rushes up and down the stairs carrying prams and generally being cheerful. All the babies repay his kindness with silent stares and contented chunters.
3. Pink meat sliced so thin it melts on the tongue.
1. Despite promises that he’d go to sleep if I walked around the block, Joe wide-eyed stares with a concerned look on his face, wondering why he’s being pushed around by a strange fuzzy lady. Then, about ten minutes in, he realises I’m cool and is all smiles for the rest of the walk. When we return to our starting point to wait for the end of his mum’s appointment, I throw milk over the both of us. I think he’s rather glad when his mum reappears to wipe us off.
2. Heads nod rhythmically by the time we hit Rodley. The air on the bus is stifling, coma-inducing but the traffic is on our side and we sail through Calverley with barely a pause. Stepping out onto the pavement reminds me of the plunge pool at the Turkish baths.
3. Caius accidentally knocks over the heater in the office. The bang jolts us all for a few seconds. Later, at home, the tongs snap apart as I’m loading the stove and I’m jolted again. Our brains are frighteningly unaccustomed to the out of the ordinary.
1. The toast is evenly brown and perfectly crisp. The pate is strongly flavoured but delicious, and stirs in me the desire to make my own. I add it onto my “things to make” list.
2. Throughout the day, all the cats visit me at my desk. They sit on my knee between my body and the table, and purr as I stroke their soft-soft chests while I work.
3. The water plunks when it hits the growing body of water in the cup but plinks! (with an exclamation mark) when it hits the edge.
4. Katherine and I watch dogs parading (in Best in Show) and eat Jaffa cakes, while Joe murmurs over the baby monitor.
1. I wonder if I’d get such joy from a clean kitchen if it was so neat and shiny all the time or whether it’s the novelty of the situation that excites me so much.
2. Katherine visits for a cup of tea and Joe shows off his smile. It’s now available on demand and not just when his facial muscle twitch at the right time.
3. The soft white root pushing through the green mung beans’ swollen shells.
© 2024 Louisa Parry