1. John pulling his buttoned shirt over his head is endearing; him trying the same move without realising his shirt is buttoned is just funny.

2. The hidden little lanes that remember when this area was like a country village. The cottage gardens overflow with pretty flowers and to the other side, towards the canal, it’s wilder, a haven for wildlife displaced by the development over the water.

2b. We’re surprised by the size of the tree – and how we’d not seen it before.

3. Like my hair after its split end removal the other day, the strawberry bed looks so much healthier after I clear away all the bad berries.

1. Fluffy light pancakes for breakfast.

2. It’s been a busy day for us but we find the time to have a quiet rest before the evening.

3. I show my friends around the allotments. I lose them at different points as they find their fruit bushes to pilfer.

1. Our neighbour catches me while I’m hanging out the washing and we chat about kitties while little R-kitten explores his new garden.

2. I get my first haircut in a year. I knew getting rid of my split ends would improve things but oh wow. My hair looks so much healthier and shinier now the dryness has gone.

3. It’s awfully hard concentrating on this very serious, complicated manner when a playful little kitten, a lovely friendly cat and a sweet happy dog are underfoot.

3b. The water is just the right temperature and feels impossibly clean in my mouth.

1. Each component of our lunch originated in a different part of Europe (though most are local copies).

2. I spend hours hoeing the beds and chopping back weeds. I’m amazed how much room suddenly appears towards the back of the plot – and oh, one of my new raspberry bushes has finally sprung into life too.

2b. Dock leaves on nettle stings.

2c. A courgette goes from plot to pot in less than an hour.

2d. Raspberries floating in the bowl. Some of the strawberries are so perfectly ripe that they almost look like they’re bleeding as I cut into them.

3. After her wobbles last week and her general anaesthetic this week, Lily finally seems to be back to her usually waggy tailed self. She potters with me at the allotment then scampers about the green spaces on the way home.

1. We try to stay on topic but he’s intrigued by the guitar then the accordion.

2. I harvest some crops from the garden. The super vivid red currants and mange tout clash marvelously in the bowl, and both the blackcurrants and raspberries are bigger than their peers from the allotment.

3. The caramelised onions are deliciously sweet.

1. Lily is at the vets all day for X-rays and an endoscopy. The house is very quiet without her: doorbells go unbarked at and our visits to the kitchen or the bathroom go unaccompanied. We worry about her all day but when we go to pick her up, the nurse’s comments assure us that he looked after her well: in just a few hours, he got to know all of her sulky quirks.

1b. We play with the pronunciation of “Bonios” and decide that “Bo-NI-os” sounds like it needs a tilde over the n.

2. I have a sneaky hour or so at the allotment after dinner. I catch up on some chores and marvel at how much everything is growing.

3. A sale, an extra coupon code and a free shipping quirk combine to give me a bargain just before bedtime.