1. The weather over the last few weeks (and the accompanying influx of slugs) has played hell with my young plants. But amongst the holey leaves and gnawed bare stalks, there are flower buds forming and cuttings taking root.

2. The main road is closed so we have to take a creative diversion (through Bramley on the way there, through Thornbury on the way back) but I don’t mind: it gives us time to chat, formulate a plan and basically put our world to rights.

3. One of Lily’s brown spots is so silky and richly chestnut in colour that she could almost get a job in a shampoo commercial. (A contrast to a few hours earlier when she found the muddiest mud puddle in the woods and wallowed in it to a chorus sighing ‘oh Lily’.)