1. There is just enough milk for me to have cereal for breakfast as well as our cups of tea.

2. Having just woken up from a nap, little J looks grumpy and bored, liable to start crying at any moment – then she sees Lily. Her eyes widen and her mouth opens into a gasp.

3. The film we pick is awful, not even fun awful really, but the rest of the evening is pleasant: highly anticipated pizzas, hedgehog cake, and chit chat about the military tattoo, home renovations and later, holidays and pottery.

3b. When we return, Lily is lying flat on the sofa – on the furry cow print throw, trying to blend in.

1. I’ve been having some spot-on cups of tea recently – including two stonkers today.

1b. Two perfect tannin rings around the tea cup.

2. Leftover curry for lunch and a veg-tastic dinner.

3. I make John bellow with laughter as we walk down the road.

3b. The old Stylo site looks like a level in a BMX stunt riding video game: piles of different sorts of rubble that seem too clean, too well defined, too neat to be real. The canal looks different, wider somehow, without the buildings overshadowing it.

1. A very simple lunch showcase the bread, which is so much better than it should be (than it usually is): the crust is rich and nutty, the crumb perfectly chewy.

2. F giggles when Lily sniffs his face then we giggle when F does his impression of a panting dog.

3. After being catless all day, Kaufman and Strange both turn up at the same time, meowing and dancing for attention. (And a food refill.)

3b. The animals enjoy a fair amount of stroking while we chat. I particularly enjoy the silkiness of Lily’s belly fur.

1. The pots I threw the other day just need a little wipe around the bottom and they look finished. (Well, unfired and unglazed, but you know, sort of finished.)

2. I crawl into the eaves and dig through a bag of old bedding (from our double bed days). I find the sheets my mum gave me from her stash when I first left for uni – still bright orange and bright turquoise (respectively) even though they’re older than me.

3. John finds an old home video from 2001 – when we were just becoming good friends. It’s from a birthday party held at my (later our) old house: it’s lovely to see it again in its happy heyday, with our beloved late cats running around too. We look frightening young.

A day in the garden and at the allotment.

1. Potted-on plants always look so neat in their new homes, especially when I find matching pots.

1b. Amongst other things, I prune back the blackcurrants, the sage, and some lavender, then I take some cuttings from the rosemary. By the time I go inside, my hands and arms are scratched up but smell lovely.

2. My allotment will never be a great producer – not like the one next door with its established raised beds full of crops – but it’s a nice, quiet space.

2b. The grass lifts much easier than the couch grass in the other beds and its fun banging the soil loose from the roots.

2c. After a bit of puppyish playing, Lily’s mouth hangs open and her eyes sparkle: “yes, we’re going to the park now,” I tell her.

3. While the cat’s out with his old bandmates, the mouse spoils herself with tuna bagel melts for dinner.

3b. Lily waking up and sniffing John to check he’s real.

1. I stand at the top of the very top stairs and call Lily. She can’t hear me but I enjoy the wobbly echo that surrounds me.

2. Kaufman is a-sleeping, he really is, he’s got his paw over his face and everything.

3. A pile of towels in different shades of duck egg blue.