1. The dog wants me to tickle her belly and her chest, so I do.

2. Z declares his dad is “full of nonsense” because he doesn’t know everything. We assert that we’re full of nonsense too, and Lily is full of double nonsense.

2b. Standing at the top of the slope watching the glistening stream curve and wind below.

2c. Another Z declaration: he wants to know if the Twirly Woos are real. When I ask him what he thinks, he tells me they don’t have a black line around them so they must be real.

3. We have time for a quick walk in the park at sunset. Lily runs around aimlessly, as she always does when presented by a flat expanse.

3b. The rounded beat of the drum.

3c. Warm popcorn.

1. Two pots have glazed brilliantly – one neatly and the other playfully.

1b. Chatting about an obscure band with someone twice my age.

1c. I decide to finish off the rim with a touch of white. I hope it’ll look good when it comes out of the kiln because it looks ace now.

1d. I don’t particularly like any of the colours I’ve made but I like the satin base – I’ll use that again.

2. Squirrels scatter as we approach the squeeze stile.

3. I mention the ISS is passing over and pop outside to see it – when I point it out so they can look at it through the window, they all join me on the patio instead.

3b. A good game grows in length as we all improve – and a lucky throw wins it for me.

1. The coolness of the shade before it is touched by the sun. Conversely, the warm stones of the patio as I fetch in the dry blankets.

2. Strange comes in meowing and we chat for a little while. She tells me, with a meow, that she’d like some cat food instead of milk please. (This might seem a no brainer for most cats but ours are obsessed with drinks – Strange and Kaufman have picked milk over tuna – TUNA – before now and Tilda runs across rooms positively giddy if offered a bowl of fresh from the tap water.)

2. The greenhouse filling up with seedlings.

3. The little girl silently watches us eat. She casts wide eyes at my waffles but is really interested in John and his colourful gelato. Every time he turns to her (smiling), she turns away almost with an eye roll: “I can’t believe I got caught watching again!”

1. Good ham.

2. I finish a bottle of Calpol and decide, before throwing them away, to make a mini fountain out of the syringe-ish dispensers. I expect them to squirt up perhaps a foot in the air and am overcome with laughter when the water shoots out with such force that it hits the ceiling and cascades down on John. I refill and take them out onto the balcony: a sharp jab on the plunger sends the water pleasantly far across the garden.

3. Frogging long abandoned yarn projects in anticipation of making something new. The wool will need relaxing but for now I enjoy its ringlets.

4. Dead veg & Polish sausage soup for dinner: yum.

1. I finally identify a mystery plant I was given as a gift three years ago.

2. A small sheet of ice, dimpled from the formed plastic packaging.

3. It’s still t-shirt weather at 5.30pm when we head out for a walk. The dirt by the curb has gone from bog to dry cracking dust in just a couple of days.

1. The sun is warm enough that I can hang out washing for the first time this year. The cats rub against my legs.

1b. Later, at the other end of the day, I go outside to fetch it in again. I get distracted from my chore by stars and a passing satellite(the sky is clear and Jupiter is bright) and bats (I’d heard them on Saturday but today is the first sighting of the year). Later, I nip out onto the balcony to watch the ISS pass overhead: it’s almost as bright as Jupiter.

2. I gently toast in the sun as I work at the allotment.

2b. Lily plops into the pond, makes herself a nest in my dug over bed and greatly enjoys some ear tickles when I take a break.

2c. I take one of the patio chairs into the greenhouse to sit down while I pot on the tomatoes. Genius idea. My back screams in gratitude.

3. Tilda pads my bare arm. Her claws scratch in their motion but I don’t stop her.