0. “Shush, ” I tell Kaufman when he visits in the night. “You’re purring too loudly; you’ll wake the dog.”

1. After a rich diet over the break, I have been craving toast, just normal boring toast. The toaster browns it perfectly and I leave it to go cold before I butter it (“hotel toast” is my favourite.)

2. A notebook of samples and, well, notes.

3. Strange often sleeps on her back, white belly on show and I wonder if she learnt it from the dog. Later she burrows under the crochet blanket, a little colourful bump confusing her teacher.

3b. Tilda sits on my knee – a rare treat and I’m sad to have to move her to make dinner. Later, after we’ve eaten and she’s finished doing cat things, she comes back and sits a little way away, unsure if she is allowed on me again. I pat my knee and her eyes light up. She settles down again.

1. I stare at the giant mounds of rocks. My favourite thing about the woods in winter is seeing again what was previously hidden.

1b. The woman thinks my fat springer is her fat springer. We laugh when she realises her mistake. I’ve done the same thing myself of course.

2. An enjoyable sentence pops up in the middle of the story: “A well stocked mind is safe from boredom.”

3. I always marvel at the lightshades – the copper, the polygons – but somehow missed the nicest thing of all: how they cast dancing dapples on the ceiling.

3b. The food is the best we’ve had there – and that’s saying something. The spices are blended so perfectly that I can’t tell exactly which flavours I’m enjoying the most.

1. No one told me that being an adult would involve being able to accurately describe poo. Lily’s has gone from veg soup to supermarket cheap sausage meat – which is progress and (hopefully) a sign that her constant rancid farting will come to an end.

2. Strange’s nose is pinker than normal: cold from her adventures.

3. The fibres cling to the bristles until you turn the carders the other way around then they magically lift away in one smooth motion.

3b. Rolls of wool ready for spinning tomorrow: ink and teal, according to the labels and I don’t think I can say it better myself. (Though it does remind me of a glaze I used in pottery the other week which was called “resplendent peacock”. Best. Name. Ever.)

1. We imagine Kaufman and Lily confusing their cat/dog friends by tell them about how, from time to time, their humans become robots.

2. Spaniel ears in the wind.

3. A new (to me) concept provoking the mental equivalent of pricked up ears.

1. Kaufman likes it when I get up with Lily in the night: bonus cuddle time. He meows a tale – possibly explaining the fighting cat noises I’d heard at a distance outside an hour earlier – then follows Lily into the garden. Later, when we’ve gone back to bed, I feel his paws – soft, no claws – grab at my feet hanging over the edge.

2. Our conversation strays onto discussion of invisible calories and how Doritos Nacho Cheese chips are the most perfect(ly evil) crisp. I am reminded of this joke – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqx5xmNsnvU.

3. Tilda needs just the tiniest invitation before she bounds up the bed for a tickle.

(Not really a New Year’s resolution but I’ve been meaning to start 3BTing again and the start of the year seems a neat re-starting point :))

1. Staying up way too late with good friends. We watch Willy Wonka, Noam Chomsky and the New Yankee Workshop as the laughter filled hours tick by. Sometimes our jokes clatter over one another and at other times, we speak with one voice.

2. The cat and dog are mirror images, two sets of outstretched paws playing with the bag.

3. Our set of (European history) lectures comes to an end and I aimlessly browse our audio books folder for something new. Everything seems samey, or too familiar, or is already queued up to listen to on dog walks. Then I see a long overlooked sub-folder – a friend’s audio offerings from a year or so ago. Over 30 lecture series covering all sorts of interesting subjects: I cheer with gratitude and delight.

4. The yarn plyed together without tangling or undue twisting. It’s so encouraging to see how my spinning has improved – each small skein is more even and less fragile than the last.