1. Sweet Tilda has a conversation with next door’s sweet little cat. It risks becoming angry but the tension disappears with some tickles on both their heads.

2. The short window between the path being too muddy and too overgrown.

2b. We reach the end of the walk but after a quick stop at home for a dog to have a drink, we head back out again to the allotment. Between bad weather and a bad head, I’ve not visited for a week and even though I won’t have time to do much, I want to check it’s all ok: it is. My fruit bushes have suddenly acquired greenery, more long sown seeds are making themselves known and the overwintered alliums are growing fatter. (On the downside, the weeds and grassy paths are springing to live too: I’ll have to do a serious cutback of everything next week.)

2c. There is some communal pine needle compost to use so I spread it on my blueberry bed (they’ll enjoy its acidity) and over the weed suppressant around the sage. It smells great when I’m working with it, and it’s warm as I dig the pile.

2d. It’s lovely (but, admittedly, a bit intimidating) to see the progress in the newly salvaged allotments – my own plots look disorganised in comparison. I’m also amazed at the size and vitality of the seedlings sheltered at the side of the polytunnel. When I reach home though, I see my squash seedlings have visibly grown since this morning and oh look, two cucumber seedlings have popped up this afternoon too.

3. Looking skyward, we miss the ISS (our house was in the way) but we see the Dragon rocket, with its solar array, then through the binoculars, I see some of Jupiter’s moons and through the telescope, I see two shooting stars near Vega.