1. Even though I feel like we faff around a lot before going out, I’m still pleasantly surprised by the time when we finally get in the car.

1b. We bump into friends – J & V – at the chicken feed store. We joke about our courgette gluts and old hens.

2. Warm – but not hot – sunshine as I walk to the plot. The heavy bag I bring back with me.

3. Our friends arrive while John’s out with Lily and I’m in the shower. They let themselves in and make themselves tea. We apologise for our special skill of even being late for events that happen in our own home.

3b. Lily snuffles for her Bonio. She knows it’s here, somewhere, but all these people are distracting.

1. The rain tells me to have a day off and I listen.

1b. The roar of the rain and stream.

2. I finish the first WIP off my August Amnesty list: my “Seahouses” blanket. I loved the colours of the initial squares but then felt increasingly meh towards it as I bordered them in school uniform grey. Now it’s finished though – and viewed from a distance while draped over a chair – I like it again.

3. Oreo Dairy Milk.

1. This batch of courgette fritters are better than the last – not as many flowers unfortunately (just the few I can rustle up from the garden) but a chilli adds interest, and they’re cooked better too. We eat too many though, as usual.

2. John misses his bus – we have time for a cup of tea and a spot of gaming before the next one.

3. Lily keeps pulling me towards shorter routes and when it starts raining, I finally pay attention. We cut down a little used path and find a fallen tree with a massive rock embedded in its roots.

1. Little M-dog has discovered that if her living room door is open onto the balcony, she can nip between the Lily-stopping divider to investigate our house. John comes downstairs from making tea followed by two dogs with tails wagging. Her visits are very cute.

1b. The pet food delivery arrives with (free) new toys for both the dog and the cats. Lily takes to her present instantly but it takes Strange a moment to catch the scent of the cat-nip in theirs. Later, when Kaufman gets it, we see his hunting behaviour in person: he takes the treasure away to savour it away from pesky humans (who have a habit of taking away his catches).

2. I listen to < href="https://soundcloud.com/inquiringminds/93-alvin-roth-the-new-economics-of-who-gets-whatand-why">a podcast about how markets work when money isn’t (or shouldn’t) be involved (using the examples of kidney donation, admission into medical training courses, and briefly at the end, congested markets like internet dating sites). It sounds like it’ll be a dry subject but I find it fascinating: it really tweaks the part of my brain that, when I was little, organised my toys into classes and designed working school timetables for them all.

3. R pops by and we decided there should be a postgraduate “Masters of None” qualification for generalists like us.

3b. The moor is busier than we thought it would be – everyone else had the same idea as us. But away from the car park, we find flat spot, throw down a blanket and some cushions, and watch fireballs (occasionally) blaze across the sky. The “ooohs” when we see one are involuntary.

1. Sometimes my French practise flies, other days it is falters. Today is a good day.

2. The firmness of a good head of lettuce.

3. The colours of the bedding in the blue light of evening. The weight of the dog as she leans into me.

1. Lily’s face when she wants to alert us to something (in this case, me sneezing which she mistakes for the doorbell): along with her raised ears, her nose and cheeks wrinkle pulling her mouth into an “oh?” shape.

2. A day of computer based chores is finished by ordering a load of photo prints – I like that the selection is primarily us (me, John, the cats and the dog) goofing off. We’re not a household to pose sensibly or present duck faced smiles to the camera.

3. Surprise sweetness in the pasta sauce: is it the homegrown onion? The pepper? The tomatoes? We’re not sure but it’s delicious, whatever it is.