A day in the garden and at the allotment.

1. Potted-on plants always look so neat in their new homes, especially when I find matching pots.

1b. Amongst other things, I prune back the blackcurrants, the sage, and some lavender, then I take some cuttings from the rosemary. By the time I go inside, my hands and arms are scratched up but smell lovely.

2. My allotment will never be a great producer – not like the one next door with its established raised beds full of crops – but it’s a nice, quiet space.

2b. The grass lifts much easier than the couch grass in the other beds and its fun banging the soil loose from the roots.

2c. After a bit of puppyish playing, Lily’s mouth hangs open and her eyes sparkle: “yes, we’re going to the park now,” I tell her.

3. While the cat’s out with his old bandmates, the mouse spoils herself with tuna bagel melts for dinner.

3b. Lily waking up and sniffing John to check he’s real.

1. I stand at the top of the very top stairs and call Lily. She can’t hear me but I enjoy the wobbly echo that surrounds me.

2. Kaufman is a-sleeping, he really is, he’s got his paw over his face and everything.

3. A pile of towels in different shades of duck egg blue.

1. The sun is bright but the air is a touch chilly. John finds it a little uncomfortable (because he is a wuss), but I like it a lot.

2. I’m surprised when a larger than normal bowl rises from the mound.

2b. My hands are always dry after working with clay and they make my hair feel rough in the shower. It’s not a directly beautiful thing – it feels horrible (though not quite as horrible as clay dry hands + microfibre cloth, bleugh!) – but it reminds me that there are few absolutes in the world that aren’t affected by our observation of them, and our observation can be broken.

3. John makes a batch of his slow-cooked pasta sauce. The house smells fantastic all afternoon: I almost want to chew the air.

1. A fresh cool breeze chills my arms as I make the tea.

2. A great haul of books from Oxfam, a light fresh cake and a series of puns as we walk through the city centre.

2b. “Hold on, I’m just putting that on Twitter,” the older woman says as she sits near the window in the charity shop.

3. The kids run towards us as we leave the alley way. “That’s the best dog we’ve seen today,” they say as they rush forward to stroke her. We tell them we know.

3b. The glowing sunset. The misty hills.

1. The dappled texture of sponged on slip.

2. We walk to the end of the road and back across the top of the quarry – a path we used to walk regularly but one we haven’t done for a while. It gives Lily time to file her nails on the tarmac and for us to nosey at the building work being done at various houses, enjoy late flowers blooming in the kerb-side flower beds and spot mushrooms in the undergrowth.

3. I offer Kaufman a leftover pea but like any sane being, he turns his nose up at it. Lily watches on: “I’ll have it, I’ll have it!” She snaffles it from my fingers then asks for more. Tail wagging, she follows me into the living room so that I can show John the old dog’s new trick, then she bounces to (naughtily) snatch her new favourite snack from my hand. We laugh at her smiling face.

It’s five years today since we bought our crazy house. I would like to say we’ve made it less crazy – since we got rid of the strangest decoration and colour schemes – but I think the reality is we’ve just made it differently crazy. We still have a window in a wardrobe but have added to that by finding a window underground, two hidden rooms and a secret hatchway through to next door. It’s ugly, weird and strangely proportioned – much like its occupants.

1. I love my breakfast cereal. Sometimes I eat it a little thoughtlessly – ploughing through it before getting on with my day – but other days like today, I relish every mouthful.

2. To get the hang of something, even if it is just for a moment. I get the rhythm and move my hands automatically before I start to think about it too much and I lose it again. It gives me hope though.

3. To give in to temptation and buy the naughty garlic bread.