1. John tries making hash brown (later just a straight-up hash, for ease of cooking) using sweet potatoes: they’re delicious but when I go into the kitchen, I have to laugh – the entire kitchen side is covered in scraps of peel and juliennned vegetables. It looks like a horrific tuber crime scene.

2. After a lazy day, the late sunshine pulls us into action. I shelter from the wind in the greenhouse and transplant some seedlings. A labeling mishap means I’m not quite sure what’s what until the sharp, fresh scent of cucumber – already evident on the young leaves – helps me identify one set of plants.

3. I pick up a neglected crochet project – the granny square blanket I made such speed on in April. I get into a rhythm with my sewing – poking my fingers through the holes to ensure even joining – and three rows are finished by bedtime.

1. Finishing a chore that’s been on my mental to-do list for years. The trellis hide the dirty wall and provide support for the fruit growing in the bed below. When I tie up flopped overgrown raspberry canes, the space opens up – it’ll be better for the plants too.

1b. Kaufman mews at us from various places in the garden. (He’s now asleep on my desk, in a ball between my keyboard and my screen.)

1c. Lily finally gives up – we’re clearly not going anywhere interesting and our work does not seem to be involving edible items – and goes to sleep in the sun.

2. Between the garden work and the bathroom cleaning, I get to escape for a short dog walk: Lily and I loop around the woods in the golden sunlight, and I get an affectionate lean from Friendly Black Dog too.

3. I nearly didn’t have it but oh my, I’m glad I did: the sauce that comes with shashliks is the crack of curry sauces, and the veg is the best grilled veg I’ve ever had too.

3b. I haven’t had Refreshers in years.

0. I put my arm around John and my hand finds a dog on the other side.

1. A silly Hangout exchange between the lower-ground floor and the bedroom. The length of the lines expands at a pleasingly even rate.

2. I joke that it’s because I used “fresh sugar” (from the bag rather than the sugar bowl) but it really does taste sweeter.

3. After listening to an In Our Time about the science of glass, we watch a very pleasing short film about the making of a glass jug. There seems to be a trend of making visually interesting things not disturbed by either narration or music: I like it.

1. White tin loaf with a thin slick of butter: it always reminds me of childhood, specifically being at my grandparents’ house. (Though while they might have accompanied it with ham, I doubt they’d have used quite so much chilli jam.)

2. We take Lily on a woodland walk just after lunch but as her normal walk time comes around, she’s raring to go again: a walk to the allotment and a potter around the plot more than suffices.

2b. The soil is just about perfect – rich and full of humus. My runners should be very happy in there – and I design the space in such a way that I should get some lettuces underneath and a row or two of something else leafy in front as well.

3. We send pictures and real time maps back and forth as John’s bus brings him closer to home. We marvel at technology, so advanced yet it fits in our hands.

1. I take the bedding up to the top floor and to my surprise, all the cats are there.

1b. Tilda is in a cuddly mood. It rather gets in the way of my hoovering – but of course I don’t mind.

2. Lily bounces back and forth along the barely there path through the long grass in the deers meadow.

2b. The trees protect me from most of the rain.

2c. I realise an answer to the question that’s been bothering me (it’s hostas – I need something leafy that isn’t afraid of shade but won’t grow too tall: I think sone hostas will fit the bill).

3. My favourite thing about my “tomato red” top is that it perfectly hides red tomato stains.

1. Kaufman rolls on his back in the sunshine, grabbing at my hand.

1b. I sit and hug Lily at the allotment. Later, she super-excitedly wants to find something to take to John when he arrives.

2. It takes me all afternoon to get the peas planted out because I have to dig over the bed again, then I decide to expand it, then I decide to cut the wood to fit the new size bed, then there are 40+ holes to dig, to fill with compost then plant out a seedling, then tie-up… The seedlings had looked so big and healthy in the tray but now, spread out, in the earth, they look scrawny. I tell myself they’ll look big and healthy again in next to no time.

3. Because of a mix up of dates, we get our neighbours’ fancy food parcel: one of those all-the-precise-ingredients-for-three-meals things. It’s nothing out of the ordinary – in fact we already have nearly everything in the house – but having it all laid out for him, and a recipe card too, inspires John to try some different techniques. We top it off with a distinctly non-box sticky toffee pudding and I feel well sated after a day of hard work.