1. Pleasantly peppery noodles for lunch.

2. Trimming back the weeds along the pathway between the long & fruit bush beds, I find a rough stone path. The weeds had covered all the stones like a mat but once uncovered, it looks both neat and sweet. (And saves me a job: I’d already mentally allocated some paving flags for making a path there – now they can be used elsewhere.)

2b. We pause in the gardening for a quick walk around the park. I do a series of reps on the outdoor gym weight machines: between these and digging, I’ll hopefully be stronger for (pottery) throwing.

2c. Trimming back (and starting to dig over) the long bed makes the whole allotment seem neater and under control. (For now!)

3. Painting my toe nails on the balcony, in the still evening air.

0. I have a dream that I’ve been hired to take over The Daily Show from Jon Stewart. It’s a fun job.

1. We’ve decided to take a “little and often” approach to clearing out the garage: a boot load goes to the charity shop and the tip, with a wheelie bin filled with recycling too. Soon there will be enough space for a potters wheel and a little kiln – woohoo!

1b. Starting to make plans – what consumables I should buy and how I should manage the processes. I find ways to make it easier (at least to start with) and resources to help me work out what to do next.

2. I’m always surprised by the brownie. It’s soooooo good.

3. Dinner is patchy – it’s good food but there is a mix up with my order, the pub is noisy and technical problems cause an unrelated but simultaneous annoyance — but afterwards, we walk around Nunroyd Park and Lily’s tail wags and wags.

1. My pots from Friday are too dry to work with as I’d wanted but I can soften the edges of the two best cylinders and make nice, simple brush pots.

1b. The bone dry clay absorbs the water with a hiss. It looks like chocolate as it breaks down for reclaiming.

1c. Swirls of dark particles in the water.

2. I made, possibly, my best Jamaican-style fish stir fry yet. (I use this recipe as a vague guide, sometimes using salt fish, other times using frozen haddock (today was haddock), add more carrots & peppers but no cabbage, and add a couple of tbsps of lime juice after the soy. It’s delicious.)

3. Evening chores in the garden, followed by a little sit on the balcony. The air is cool and still.

1. I dredge a plant pot full of slugs from my beer traps at the allotment – it’s utterly disgusting but maybe beautiful at the same time: the expired Strongbow in the traps did what it should and my plants are perhaps a little safer.

1b. Little rapini seedlings poke up just five days after they were sown (I know it’s the rapini and not weeds because I can still see my diagonal lines).

2. We curl up on the sofa together to watch a film.

3. The cats and dog mingle in the twilight.

1. After nearly a decade and a half in Yorkshire, I forget – and freshly appreciate – the flatness of west Lancashire. We take a new route and as we get closer to our destination, we pass familiar landmarks I haven’t seen for years.

(That actually seems to be a theme for today – even more so than on usual trips to Southport because we go to slightly different places. The chip shop we’d visit after going to Elliotts or the Kingsway (twenty years ago now); the house just off Lord St where a friend lived; then later the park.)

2. There is such variety of colour and texture in their garden, a contrast to the endless flat grassland beyond.

2b. Lily likes pottering around and gets distracted grazing at the untamed end. I find the longest bamboo cane – some 12ft – and poke her with it: she jumps but by the time she rounds the vast tree stump to check, she’s wearing an ‘I knew it was you’ smile.

3. After dinner, we meant to go to the beach but the clouds are gathering so we go to the park instead. We find the little playground of my childhood has been replaced with four separate play spaces – one for little kids, one for bigger ones, a wooden adventure set and an outdoor gym for adults. We make my mum (who hasn’t visited the park for 20 years, even though it’s only a couple of minutes walk from her house) try all the outdoor gym equipment but we’re happy to keep the zip line in the adventure bit for ourselves.

4. We take the rain back with us – I have just enough time to fetch the washing in from the line before it starts. Later, I let the drops cool me as I wait for Lily to get herself ready for bed.

0. I remember two things I meant to note earlier in the week: the surprise of the brightest red cherries on the tree; and how much I enjoy the bathroom mirror and sink when they’ve just been cleaning – sparkling in the evening light.

1. While waiting for the bus, I sit on the grass verge in the shade. Oscar the long dog rounds the wall and is surprised to see me there, at his head height, and he expresses his delight by licking my face.

1b. Throwing terracotta cylinders – just more practise but pleasing all the same. It’s new clay (not the usual reclaimed stuff) so is smooth and silky under my hands.

1c. Even though I’ve used a notoriously patchy glaze, my little pendants come out well – I only made them to use up some scraps of clay but I want to actually turn them into jewellery now.

2. We potter in the early evening sunshine. I transplant some things in the greenhouse and see to the chickens, and later John fixes a new support for his apple tree while I trim the holly tree. It feels like bonus time.

3. We go out for dinner – but a quick, relaxed one: kebab and gelato (keblato). My chicken tikka boti is succulent and sweet, the naan fluffy, and the gelato surprisingly orange-y.

3b. We’re near a shoe shop called Mr Boot. Until about 2003, it had a decades old sign reading “John Robson is … Mr Boot” and whenever I see it, it reminds me of a long running joke we had around 2001/2002: it started as saying the name like the start of this trailer but then involved into countless silly versions (such as “Juan Robson es … Senor Boot”). We did it every time we drove past it – and that was it a lot. It always makes me laugh anew when I remember it.

4. How we make each other laugh with our little bits. (I mean ‘bits’ in the ‘comedy bit’ sense; I’m not just being coy about our genitalia. Though they make us laugh too.)

4b. John playing guitar and singing in the near dark.