1. Reading on the sofa with the cats for an hour and a half before John wakes up.

2. The chunks of lamb are sweet, spicy and slightly sticky. The milkshake for dessert is just sweet.

3. Everyone laughs at the expression on Lily’s face when she comes back downstairs.

1. There isn’t too much chatting because we’re all so engrossed in our work.

1b. I’m very much enjoying myself but for a moment, just a moment, I have an ache to be at home with John and the animals.

2. To find a tool that does exactly what I need.

3. Tilda’s pupils are so wide that there is barely any lemon left at all.

1. Kaufman is sat at the edge of the rainbow – just his whiskers and forehead are glowing red – but Lily is in the whole spectrum: as she plays, her white fur is dyed in stripes.

2. The dog crouches low, rooted to the spot, then it sees its mum going down the Cutting and its excitement wins out. Lily has been hanging close but as soon as it takes off, she wants to runs after it, to play. She strains at her lead and looks longingly down the path.

3. John’s excellent omelettes. (#notaeuphemism)

1. Lily runs up and down the green field.

1b. I reach out to the tree for support as I clamber but then retract my hand in horror – something wet and clammy on the trunk, ick! When I look though, it is only jelly ear fungus – the largest amount I’ve ever seen on one tree.

2. Every now and then, a pair of eyes momentarily appear in the box’s narrow opening before disappearing into the darkness again. Then the doorbell rings and a whole head emerges to ask what’s going on.

3. The conversation meanders as all our discussions do but by the end, the only thing we agree on is how little we really know. I think.

1. Tilda’s fur is warm from the sun. (The young cats are Spring babies who came to live with us during the hottest weeks of summer so they didn’t learn to appreciate the sun before The Cold Came. Now they seek it out whenever they can, like proper cats :) )

2. I stretch out in front of the fire with Kaufman and Carla, and Lily and Strange, and read about a woman becoming the person she is.

3. A deliciously simple dinner.

1. I get up momentarily and Tilda steals my spot. I return to the bed and curl up around her. I read and she pads the towel underneath us.

2. I’m in a new pottery class this term – new tutor, new people (although I already know about half of them from “drop-in” sessions). My piece doesn’t go terribly well – first, the clay is too dry, then I work a little too fast and it threatens to collapse – but by watching other people work (and by openly eavesdropping on the tutor working with them), I learn so many new things.

3. The orange glow from the embers brightens the dark room.