It’s been a busy few days and blogging – and reading blogs – has lost out. Long gone are the days when I determined to write a daily post. This started as an exercise in determination but eventually started to rather rule me, so I made the opposite decision, which was to not write every day but when I wanted to. It’s a bit like coming off a strict diet, not always easy to find the right balance.

Anyway, I went to Essex to fetch most of the rest of the china for the auction – news on that to come, it’s not all settled yet – and, the next day, I went down to Wink and loaded the car up again. She does have a removal company whose quote she’s accepted without a firm date yet, but she wants to move everything but the furniture and ‘white goods’ gradually. So I’ve got china, glasses, books, vinyl records and some other odds and ends. I’ve put all the boxfuls in the hall in the annexe.

I got home on Sunday and, on Monday, Tim went off to Reading to see to things at his house. He’s had a productive day today, even achieved things that weren’t on The List. Yesterday, I went shopping for cards. There are all the rest of the family birthdays, plus those of friends, as well as all four family wedding anniversaries, between now and the end of September. So I bought a dozen cards and some wrapping paper. Then I unpacked Friday’s china, labelled and described it. I should have labelled more china today but I was too tired. Best not to handle delicate antiques when you’re so tired that you’ve become clumsy.

I wasn’t tired because anything had gone wrong though, but because of a lovely day. I spent it with Weeza and family. It’s Zerlina’s 12th birthday today. She has been taller than me for a couple of years and has pretty well caught up with her mother. She loves being tall and, as she’s lean as a whippet, she hasn’t got the bulk that might make her self-conscious; not that it should anyway. The outing she’d have liked with a friend couldn’t take place because the friend’s grandad is receiving treatment for cancer, so the whole family is shielding to protect him. So young z completely understood and accepted that and the visit is postponed. She’s kind enough not to go without her friend, but to wait.

I’m not sure why I was so tired when I got back, but I couldn’t move for a while and then spent an hour feeding animals, watering and dealing with the dishwasher, so I was tired again. I feel perfectly well and it’s just that, after a lifetime of being an owl, I’m now neither lark nor even nightjar. I just flag in the evenings, to my annoyance. I suppose it’s simply age. I used to liven once 9 o’clock arrived and now I start wondering if it’s too early to go to bed, which it is.

Tomorrow is Weeza and Phil’s 15th wedding anniversary and Thursday is Gus’s 9th birthday. With nothing else planned, I’ve invited them here and I’m so charmed that the children wanted to come. I’ve bought a long piece of rope for a new swing, because z is far too tall for the one hanging from the apple tree. Phil and Weeza, possibly with the assistance of LT (not me because I’m far too short) will construct it to hang from the stone pine tree next to the big oak on the drive. We’ll need a hook or something to loop it to the trunk when it’s not in use, I think, but there’s a sturdy horizontal branch about ten feet up, or three metres if you prefer, which should be just right.

Stone pine is the name of the species, it’s not made from stone. Fabulous big pinecones, everyone admires them. Russell’s brother Austin brought the seeds back from North Africa about 60 years ago; they grow around the Mediterranean normally.

It is also Eloise cat’s 6th birthday. I had an egg for breakfast and shared the yolk with her, and bought new batteries for her cat flap. If she understood the concept of birthdays, she might feel a bit short-changed. But hey, she’s happy.