There should have been a local food market under the Buttercross today but, in view of the very poor weather forecast, it was called off. High winds and driving rain were prophesied – I’m sure the weather forecast has not improved in its details in the last decades. A minor form of the rainstorm arrived this afternoon, but it was nothing like the forecast and the fair could have gone ahead. Still, Wink and I went into town for our shopping, just to the greengrocer and deli. Someone had brought in some field mushrooms, proper wild ones and I snapped up the biggest. It was about 8 inches, or 20cm if you’re of that persuasion, in diameter. I put it in a dish of a similar size, added half a red pepper, the long sort with thin walls, a couple of freshly harvested garlic cloves, some spring onions, drizzled it all with olive oil and baked it for ten minutes or so. Then I added some hummus, made with additional spinach and lemon and baked again and, for the final couple of minutes, a thick slice of mozzarella, to melt over it. Very good.

You will, if you’ve been a blog follower for some years, remember Mike Horner, of the splendid moustaches and beard. His blog was The Armoury. He and Ann are such lovely people, two of the very best. Sadly, Mike has had Alzheimer’s for several years now and it’s progressed. I last spoke to Ann about a year ago – my fault for not keeping in better touch. Liz, the Small Bear told me that Ann had said that Mike is now in a care home and I phoned Ann this morning. No good news, I’m afraid, Mike is unhappy with life and she would love to have him home, but she knows she couldn’t cope. She is well and we will meet up soon – I’d hoped to take her out to lunch next week but various family members are with her each day, so I’ll ring her again when I’m back from Pembrokeshire.

The dismal effects of Alzheimer’s can’t be exaggerated. Mike was so knowledgeable and intelligent and now he can’t access any of the sharp mind he used to have. Tim and I last saw them 4 years ago, when they were about to move house, but then lockdown came along and there was never another opportunity to meet.

With the postponement of the blog party, I had to email my friends, who should have coincidentally been here on that day, to say that it wasn’t going to happen after all. But then I thought again, so have invited friends round for dinner. This is a rare event – not really as rare as I think it is, because one friend came for lunch the other day and another had come to stay for a few nights last week. But actually planning supper and getting it organised days in advance – not really a dinner party because it’ll be simpler than that, but it might as well be. I used to do that sort of thing and then couldn’t cope with it any more, because of my mother’s health and the repercussions from that. I’ve never recovered my social life in over 20 years. I broke and have never mended fully. Though I love having lots of people here, cooking for them and sitting back, watching them laugh and chat – not that I don’t join in, of course – I stopped arranging it, which is such a shame. I’d like to think that this will be my next step on the road back to finding the Z I used to be, albeit older and less sanguine. But sociable.