I went out for supper with my book group friends last night. The hedgerows are at their peak at this time of the year, with the grass fresh and vibrant, the cow parsley in flower and nothing yet rank and tired. I drive three or four miles along a country lane, stopping to pick up other people on the way to whoever’s hosting the evening. Who picks up whom, or whether someone walks or cycles, depends on whose turn it is, but I always drive as it’s quite some way.

I slowed down for a pair of partridges. He was on the right side of the narrow road and would have been quite happy to swerve off into the verge. But his wife would have none of it. She trotted on in the middle of the road, agitated but determined. He loyally carried on behind her and I stopped, hoping they’d move aside. They didn’t, so I crawled on behind them until eventually they moved, first him to the hedge on the right and then her to the left. Luckily, neither changed their mind as I edged past.

A few yards on, a hare skittered along. Such a pleasure to see. I do love hares, with their absurd ears and their long back legs. They’re threatened by a form of myxomatosis, but this one looked healthy. Later, my friend Gill told me that it seems to have spent itself out for now, the remaining hares are looking okay.

I picked up Annie and we drove on. A hedgehog ambled in front of us, a rare sight nowadays. We fetched Helen and Anne and went on for a delightful evening with the others.

On the way home, with just Annie in the car again, I rounded a corner – luckily, I never go very fast on that road – and there was a little owl (the breed as well as the size) crouched on the tarmac. I jinked past it thankfully – how awful if I’d hit it – and thought, I’d seen a greater variety of wildlife than I usually do in a week.

This month’s book is Artemis Cooper’s autobiography of Elizabeth Jane Howard. She – EJH, that is – was a customer of Al’s for a number of years, in the days when she had frequent house parties and put in big orders for fruit and veg. He used to deliver to her, just down the road from his shop. One day, he added a card and a bunch of flowers. The next week, she dropped in to thank him. “How did you know it was my birthday?” He said that he’d seen it in the paper, not quite liking to say that he’d been reading her autobiography. She was really quite frank about her love life and he was slightly embarrassed, she being the same age as his grandmother. In fact, slightly isn’t quite strong enough. In the end, he gave the book to me, unfinished. He said he just felt too awkward, reading all that about someone he knew.

Clearly, when I say tomorrow, I mean sometime in the future. I use my phone nearly all the time I need the internet, yet I prefer to blog via the computer, so I don’t always get here.

Dave had his operation successfully, and they hope he’ll come home tomorrow – Tuesday, that is.

Eloise cat has nearly shaken off her flu. She just sneezed over Tim – this is a little after 9pm – having hardly sneezed all day; and her eyes and nose have been fine. She’s eating normally, so I don’t have to squirt her painkillers into her mouth but can put the liquid on her food.

The very good news is that she loves her new cage. We bought a four foot long dog crate – she is going to have to live in it for three months (it’s the length of the crate rather than the dog, as you well know). We’ve set it up, leaving the door open, and she was investigating it within minutes. You know how curious cats are, reputedly – they are in fact. We fed her in there yesterday and, today, I put a duvet cover in there for her to walk on, and an old woollen jumper of mine for a bed. Within minutes, she was having a nap on it. The tricky bit will be that she will have to have her litter tray in the same space, which will not come naturally to her. So I’ve bought a covered one. Once she’s happy with using it in the cloakroom, I’ll put the cat flap on it and, once she’s learned that, I’ll put it in the cage. We are not letting her outdoors at all. Now she’s feeling better, she asks to go out, but we don’t let her. The other thing I’m doing is weighing her food, so I know how much she eats. She will be almost immobile for three months and she needs to lose a bit of weight, not gain it. Trying to find out how much to give her, ideally, isn’t easy though. Guidelines on wet and dry food are for that food only, not a mixture.

Having taken my bike in to be serviced, I popped in on Friday morning to ask when it would be ready. Later in the afternoon – but the weather was iffy, so I said I’d come by the next day. But Saturday brought somewhat challenging weather – it could turn from bright sunshine to a sharp hailstorm and then back again within minutes. There was also a chilly wind – I did not want to cycle in it, even though it’s not much over a mile – the road is open to fields on each side and quite exposed. So I dropped in to pay the bill, buy a new pump and arrange that I’d fetch it when the weather improves. Sometime in August, perhaps… Anyway, it’s got two new wheels and inner tyres, I hope it has new handlebar grips and the brakes etc have been serviced. I’ve spent enough to be quite keen to get my money’s worth.

Dave’s sister Sue is staying with us at present, and she will come through for a chat before bed soon. They’re all being stalwart, Dave too. Life continues.

Well, we had the results we were expecting, hoped not to have but they aren’t the worst they could be. In short, Eloise has a cruciate rupture and it’s quite badly gone, with evidence that it’s been damaged for some time before it finally tore. So an operation is clearly the best option. She will have to be pretty well immobile for three months, so I’m checking out cages that will be big enough for a litter tray and living quarters.

Her sneezing is nothing to do with anything inhaled, but down to cat flu. She has tonsillitis. It’s not too bad – an antibiotic injection a week ago was fortuitous, and no further treatment is required. It’s totally coincidental, nothing to do with the leg problem.

The local vet can operate on the cruciate ligament, but a specialist orthopaedic vet will be better. As our vet Louise explained, their practice might do one or two a month, but Shane in Ipswich does two or more a day. Success is pretty well guaranteed, as long as the aftercare is right.

We’re anxious, but we’ll do the best possible, so it’s the operation and an incarcerated summer and we hope Eloise cat will cope reasonably well.

Think of Rose and her darling Dave (aka Lawrence). He has a broken humerus and will be operated on tomorrow morning. It’s pretty serious, in his state of health, so we can only trust the doctors and hope.

I spoke too soon in regard to Eloise cat. She sneezed a lot over the weekend and then she developed a snuffly cough. Yesterday, I phoned the vet and they were able to fit us in at 2.30

The good thing is that her chest is clear and she doesn’t seem to be actually ill. There is no reason to think she has had an allergic reaction to anything and, though her eye is rather runny, there does not appear to be an infection – though the antibiotic injection she had last Thursday is still effective. I feel it’s quite likely that she has inhaled something, maybe a feather or some fluff, and it got lodged somewhere in her trachea and is maybe now in a sinus, but I’m guessing. Her leg joint is still rather clicky. As we have an appointment for Thursday morning – tomorrow, that is – we won’t feed her breakfast and they may decide to admit her and give her a proper examination under anaesthetic. I say I won’t feed her in the morning, but actually she’s almost stopped eating. She’s quite miserable, though not really ill.

There always must be some good news though and, in this case, it’s that Tim’s driving licence is being returned. He’d been told it was worth applying in six months, though they might have insisted on twelve. A clean bill of health from the doctors, following his MRI scan, has done the job. He’s just had this verbally so far, so is keeping an eye on the DVLA website to know when he’s officially back in the driving seat.

As it happens, I have decided not to be quite so lazy as I have been recently, and have taken my bike in to be serviced. It needs new tyres and a general overhaul. I also need a lesson in using the foot pump to pump up the tyres – I’ve never mastered fixing it to the valve. Tim had a go yesterday and he couldn’t do it either. So I had to walk the bike into town, as it wouldn’t fit in the back of the car, rather annoyingly. Still, the mile or so over the Dam (in these parts, this is a road over a flood plain/water meadows) is a pleasant stroll and I enjoyed it enough to do it again today. Parking in the town is not easy and it gives a feeling of satisfaction to sail past those searching for a space, fasten the bike to a post and stroll on into the shops. I used to walk a lot before I had bad hips, but now I’m disinclined to carry all my shopping home, so bicycle it is.