1. The smell – a pleasantly, slightly perfumed smell – reminds me of someone I know. I’m not sure who but I must like them as it makes me smile without thinking.

2. It’s lovely to see how some of the kids have been transformed by working on the show – the workshops are a delight.

2b. I’m tickled by his ability to do the Herbert the Pervert whistle as he talks and the other lad’s ability to add “dad” or “mum” to the end of sentences to make them hilariously wrong.

3. Wet petals in puddles as I walk up the road.

1. The dining table is often used as a dumping ground for misc – especially during the recent house renovations – so it’s a pleasure to have it clear to use for actually dining.

2. I didn’t have a lot of faith in the gammon joint but it turns out well: it’s not too salty (like some gammon) and the decorative cloves add a surprisingly lovely flavour.

3. The dog leans heavily against my legs; the cat lies heavily along my side. The heaviness is heavenly.

1. Salty Swillington bacon for breakfast.

2. A beech tree has fallen down in the horses’ field! We explore it thoroughly – the exposed roots, the just-set-to-leaf buds and where the trunk had split open in the pressure of the fall. I climb up the trunk like Batman up a building.

3. Piles of pulses: tarka daal and channa masala for dinner. Makes up for the meaty breakfast!

1. The house – a friend’s family home – is so very ‘us’ that it’s like looking into a highly desirable future. There are so many things I like about it that I’d never be finished listing them but the thing that strikes me the most are the three, odd wooden chairs around the table in the kitchen, the wood on the arms worn smooth from years of hands.

2. The strong lemony after-taste from a wood sorrel leaf.

3. The dog with odd eyes stares at us as we enter. The first aisle smells strongly of melon or peach, something pleasantly fruity anyway. A perfectly floury batch loaf. But the highlight without a doubt are the Sicilian olives.

1. To see green shoots appearing: the seeds have not rotted in the soil after all, hurrah.

2. We walk back from the polling station via an weedy snicket, the bridge over the canal and the woods. We spot long gone gates, broad beans & peas growing in my favourite house’s front yard, a cow & her calf in the hidden farmyard and a mini-orchard over the other side of the wall. In return, we’re spotted by two excited dogs, who run around tails wagging between the raised beds and trees.

3. The traffic on the far side of the road is rarely going anywhere fast – standing traffic backed up from the crossroads all afternoon – but it’s still a nice surprise when someone holds back to let me cross.

1. Four orange feathered faces watch me as I open the gate, then all pile inside. Usually they’re keen to get out of the run (into the terribly exciting garden) but today they want to go back in – to escape the rain and because they’ve heard a rumour that I have seed in there. They bustle in and clucked around my feet.

2. One of the best things about bean salad is that it’s hard to make a small batch of it. The pan – full of fibre, vitamins and tangs of vinegar & chilli – will bulk out our lunches this week in a rather delicious way.

3. To have nothing to do but read in my favourite chair as day transforms into night.