1. Kaufman sits on my chest, his paws beautifully curved around on themselves, while I wake up.

2. A loop in the woods I haven’t walked for a while.

2b. A non-traditionally beautiful thing: a young badger sadly died near the path a few weeks ago. Watching it decompose as been gross but fascinating. It’s currently mostly just fur.

3. John’s new toy (a tiny quadcopter) has a small camera on it so we can watch as it whips around the gardens. Then the battery suddenly dies and it falls from the sky. We try to identify where it is by the plant leaves still visible on the screen – then a curious cat appears on screen too. By the time we get onto the balcony, three cats are stalking the fallen prey.

3b. Biting the Wispa Bits in half. The chocolate gives better than Dairy Milk but not as pointlessly freely as something like Aero.

1. We both sleep badly so waking is a slow process. I lean down to hug Lily: she is soft and warm.

2. The soil’s surface is grey and dry but underneath it’s a rich warm brown.

2b. Bees all over the broad beans at the plot = Broad Bees. Bees all over the raspberries at home = Raspbees.

2c. She thinks she sees him but doesn’t really react, just in case. When she definitely sees him, she runs up and down the path with excitement.

3. Hearty, spicy, flavour-packed soup from the freezer – John suggests a good option for an easy dinner.

1. Cute new pyjamas for a day of lounging.

2. Z absently climbs all over John as he tells us what he’s been up to recently.

2b. The calm after the storm. Lily immediately falls asleep.

3. The yarn is a little too thick for what I want right now but the idea is sound: I’ll return to it another time.

1. Kaufman sits on my chest for tickles then transfers to John for chin/head scratching.

2. The smell of leather at the bag display.

2b. I don’t have to wait long for the bus, I get a seat and it’s not sweltering.

3. S and O suggest we get take out rather than going around the corner to the restaurant. This marks the start of a very pleasurable, relaxing evening.

3b. O and I order Chinese for one place and John and S order curry from another – but both orders arrive within seconds of each other.

3c. A platter of dishes: O and I have a great selection to work through. John and S note we’re still eating long, long after they’ve finished – and we don’t even get around to the main course. It’s all delicious.

3d. The game is frustrating and drags on a bit but our jokes keep it enjoyable.

3e. Choco bons and Fruitella Crunchies.

1. Vintage gouda and oak smoked cheddar – two excellent cheeses, too good to be the supporting cast to the rest of lunch really.

2. I take my remaining lettuce plugs to fill in the gaps where seedlings have wilted away in this week’s hot weather but when I look closely, I see that they’re all still alive after all. All the plants – the lettuce and the garden – are all picking themselves up and growing stronger every day.

2b. Soil, broken up then returned to the half bag, uniform and neatly weed free.

3. Lily loves it when her friends come to visit her. P tickles her and hugs her all evening while we chat. At one point, she pads at him for more attention and when he simply turns to her and says hello, she pulls the most wonderful, hilarious expression.

3b. I swish the drink around the can then listen to the fizzing.

1. It’s utterly silly, utterly impossible to explain to anyone who wasn’t there in the moment, but we do a bit that makes us laugh. We spend a lot of the day locked into our own worlds but when we surface, the moments we have together are so very precious. Sometimes, when we tell people that we spend all day every day together, people reply that they couldn’t handle that much time with their loved one – that they’d get on each others’ nerves – but we think we’re very lucky indeed.

2. I dig a hole for the hosta that is the perfect size. The plant slips out of the pot and into the hole disturbingly neatly.

3. We go to see David Sedaris in Bradford. Unlike last year, when we were so close to the front that he was almost swallowed by the podium, we’re at the back, on the corner of the dress circle but his personality fills the whole space.

3b. I suck the fruit pastilles: first the layer of hard sugar melts down, then the hard jelly softens and shrinks until all that is left is an aftertaste.

3c. There is a queue at the car park paypoint – two shows coming out at once according to the attendant – so we walk around the block in the evening sun. An arts festival is being prepared in the gardens around the town hall but the thing that catches our eye the most is the setting sun turning far off glass towers to bronze.