1. I write a to-do list for the week and tick half of it off without really trying.

1b. This funny cat:

2. Possibly a carry over from our old north-facing back to back, I always feel like our house is quite dark (especially when compared to, say, my mum and dad’s house) so I’m pleasantly surprised when the rooms are daylight-bright.

3. A selection of flavours and textures.

1. The person I don’t like doesn’t stay in the room for very long.

1b. The smoothness of the glaze on the spatula – if only I could glaze pots as neatly!

2. John holds Lily on his knee and she looks very regal indeed.

3. Tilda sits with me for the first part of Game of Thrones.

3b. Strange pads at Lily’s mane and head. Lily turns to sniff the paw and when she realise it’s Strangey, she goes straight back to sleep.

3b. As I’m going to bed, I tell all the cats to come upstairs with me. They all do (though they only stay a short while).

1. My sage cutting finally have roots to pot on. The neat fibre modules. A shuffle around to encourage the long purple aubergines to catch up with the other varieties.

2. To lose an hour chatting about all the things that excite us.

3. I clear the last remaining bed: from here on in, at that plot at least, it’s just maintenance.

3b. Lily gets excited when it’s finally time to leave. She pulls me to the gate and then rushes us on to the park. It’s a good job they’re nearby.

4. We don’t have to wait long for John to come home.

1. Good croissants.

2. We’re playing on the bridge when we hear a loud moo. Around the corner we find a herd of young cows, who come closer, into the stream as we approach. We offer clumps of grass and get our hands licked in return.

3. Strange asleep in the narrow space between my legs. Later, turned over on her back, her lovely white paws hang softly above her.

1. I step into the woods to coppice a pesky sycamore and when I look up at the end of my job, a cat is rustling the undergrowth in one side of me and a hen is amongst the redcurrant bushes on the other.

1b. Blacksy the Black Rock hen lets me stroke her for the first time in years.

2. There’s a clear difference between my autumn and spring broad bean sowings: the firmer are growing inches every day and are far bushier than I’ve ever managed before.

2b. Inspired by my site mates, I set up a bamboo bean pole support. It suddenly makes my scratty, weedy plot look a whole lot more like a proper allotment.

2c. The netting perfectly fits around the frame, almost as if it was intentional. I should have room for dozens of pea plants, with room for a row of lettuce in the middle, taking advantage of their shade.

3. Lily rests her head on my leg as she sleeps. I’m a happy pillow.

3b. Strange has such a funny habit – of sitting down with either the front or back half of her body while the other half remains as it was, standing en route. It always makes us laugh.

1. After breaking the weaver’s block, I spend most of the day weaving – well, some weaving and a lot of tying loose ends when I cut the five towels off the loom. I’m surprised by the coloured bands I’d forgotten put on the earlier ones but like the simplicity of the bright lines on the later ones.

1b. The knots that go perfectly.

1c. I watch a fascinating geology documentary and learn that my stoneware pots are fired higher than the temperature required to melt granite.

2. Strange positions herself so that I have no choice but to tickle her.

3. My favourite muffins.