Thursday 10th September 2020

The week flies by.

Already it is Wednesday, and although the year seems to have dragged with unpteen events and things cancelled, it has also flown by.

It defies logic.

We have time and money to go on holiday, but nowhere to go, and little desire for travel.

It's all very odd indeed.

Jools is back to work, up with the larks, and I have learned to sleep through the alarm, only waking up as it gets light just before six. Jools then makes a coffee, tells me which cats have and have not been fed.

Then leaves.

I get dressed, put out the bins, finish my coffee and play with Poppy for half an hour. I think she could have played forever. Maybe I should have let her?

I pick raspberries for breakfast, make another coffee and listen to a podcast before logging on for work at eight.

I had no mails to deal with.

Odd.

No one called all through the day.

But I was poised.

Poised, and ready, like a coiled spring, ready to leap into action to deal with whatever work threw at me.

Instead of lunch, I mow the lawn. Or most of it. Some i leave so the Viper's Bugloss plugs would settle, and some ribwort plantain were leaft near the hedge. It looks good.

I could have a beer. But don't, I have an iced squash instead.

Later, I found Cleo asleep in one of the flower beds, not a care in the world. She looked so content.

I took a shot.

Work was slow.

So I went to sit on the sofa with the laptop and headphones, so I could work and watch Le Tour at the same time.

During the afternoon, the postman brings a package: a new book on orchids that I have supplied pictures before. It is not just a field guide, but a vegetive guide too, with shots of all UK species from emergence to going to seed. It is the definitive work, and there is my name in the credits.

Sweet.

The race finishes about half four, giving me time to prepare the chorizo hash for dinner.

I feed the cats, as I had four pairs of eyes watching me as I work in the kitchen, cats fed in the kitchen, kittens on the stairs. All went good.

Jools comes back, I finish cooking the potatoes and mix it up once cooked and dish the gloop out. It is colourful, and very nice.

Jools pour a glass of tripel and we eat.

For Jools the week is hard, having done four days work for the first time in three months. She is shattered, so goes to bed just after eight, I follow her at nine, read some more of WSC and call it a nice.

Cleo jumps on the bed and snuggles up to me.

Perfect.