1. Tilda is asleep on the chair in the living room. She doesn’t sit there normally but I threw a blanket on it yesterday and that means she will now glue herself to it.

1b. The neighbour’s cat spots me in the garden and runs over, meowing, for a cuddle. I wish our cats were as sociable as her.

2. I rejig the positions of my outside tomatoes and cucumbers, and spot tiny little tomatoes amongst the leaves. The garden plants seem generally a bit behind the allotment ones – it’s good to see they’re catching up now though.

3. I flesh out an idea at my desk but it truly comes alive when I tell John about it as we walk.

1. The chickens cluck softly, expressing their interest in the slightly past-it Shreddies I sprinkle over the ground.

1b. As I’m pinching out the growing tips of the chillis in the porch, Strange enters with a low meow, then another, then attaches herself to my leg. When she starts chewing at my calf, I realise I’ve been rubbing up next to catnip in the greenhouse.

2. The sleek grey cat runs along the path – it thinks everyone has left and the site belongs to him again. It stops when it sees me then continues on his path when he realises I’m a friendly human. I chat to him and distract Lily while he continues on his rounds across my plot.

2b. There are more tomatoes than I thought in the plastic greenhouse. And there are more courgettes ready to harvest too.

2c. Lily runs across the flat parkland in the evening sun. Above the path, near the goalposts, the clover flowers speckle the green. I stop, as I often do, to enjoy the longer view, of the hills in the distance.

3. Lamb and cauliflower cheese and roasted Mediterranean veg.

1. Courgette flower fritters and salad for lunch: delicious and nearly all homegrown. We eat too much.

2. Lily and I both fall over on our walk, slipping on mud in the wet woods. She is stopped by a convenient little tree and I manage to escape with just a couple of nettle stings – which, when falling into a clump of nettles and brambles isn’t bad at all.

3. R comes over in the evening. He sounds more positive than he has in months.

1. I try some new nail varnishes – one nail in each colour. The dark purple is nothing of note (I already have one that comes out a similar shade) but the flat grey-aubergine is very pleasant indeed. It contrasts strongly with the third: a cheerful turquoise that is sublimely summery. The different colours remind me of using multi-coloured nail varnish when I was a teenager. I very rarely paint my finger nails at all – I abuse my hands too much, these will just be for use on my toes – but these tests catch my eye all day.

2. I take a couple of bowls of fruit and veg scraps down to the chickens. As I throw in the outer lettuce leaves, the mange tout & courgette ends, and the strawberry tops, I tell the chickens that everything is local and organically produced (since it’s all from the allotment). It’s nice that nothing goes to waste.

3. Someone turned up the contrast at my allotment after the recent rainy weather. All the greens are more vivid, the strawberries shockingly red, and the soil a healthy almost-black (compared to its usual grey top coat).

3b. The weight of the bag of produce that I carry home.

4. I realise that my feet are cold at the exact moment that a cat (Strange) decides she wants to sit on them and warm them up for me.

1. Tilda and I reach the dining room at just the same moment – she meows proudly at the bird in her mouth. I tell her we don’t like them catching birds and I see, when she drops it, that it’s still breathing: at least she could have put it out of its miser— oh! As I lean down to pick it up, it takes to the air, flying up the stairs into the bedroom. We (aided by Tilda) catch it again and release it in the garden.

2. Lily’s vet appointment is conveniently at the other branch – over in Shipley, where I had been planning to go afterwards anyway.

2b. Amongst other chores, I pop into Hive to pick up some pottery: there are the usual disappointments but two bowls have come out wonderfully – some of my favourite pieces to date – and a few of the little pendants are very pleasing too.

3. I make a good onion gravy for with dinner.

1. John cooks my scrambled eggs longer, even though it pains him to do so.

2. The sweet firmness of the chargrilled courgette.

3. A new spin on an old game. It gets a little silly.