I’ve been sociable for the past couple of weeks. I’ve even been going out in the evenings, which has been rare of late. And today, Rose and I met Indigo and Lisa Roth, who got married 6 weeks ago, for lunch at a restaurant halfway between their house and mine – though I picked Rose up on the way, it didn’t add much to the time. They both look so happy together and Lisa is glowing. Just lovely. They’re two of the very loveliest people I know and I’ll always cherish Indigo’s kindness when I lost both Russell and Tim.

Rose is also much better and enjoying life again. She had been so unwell last year – that is, it had been building up for a while and her doctor was unwilling to refer her to the consultant she needed to see. When she finally was referred, the cure was immediately agreed on and her operation was in November.

A very odd thing happened a couple of nights ago. I’d gone to have a bath before bed and heard a yowl from downstairs. I rushed down (with my bathrobe on, I’m not running round a chilly house in February – or a warm house either, come to that) and met Wink in the kitchen, she having heard the noise too. Eloise cat was with her, looking as normal. Wink said that she thought that the mother barn cat had got in the cat flap and a furious Eloise chased her out. She’d seen a glimpse of a cat, she thought, and it had white paws. But the cat flap reads microchips and only Eloise and Rose’s two cats are registered to it. The mother barn cat doesn’t have a microchip anyway, none of them does. So it’s a mystery. I am sure she can’t have sneaked in when I’d opened the door to let ECat in and it would have been really unlikely anyway. The next morning, I found a decapitated mouse in the drawing room, the head neatly placed beside it.

I’m hoping to get a date for this year’s blog party before long. This year, I’d like to try to arrange it mid-week, as one potential guest – or rather, a couple – can’t manage weekends. One person’s best day is Tuesday, another can’t manage Mondays or Fridays and I’m waiting to hear from another, who works in a school so probably needs to think holiday times. So that gives us the end of May half term week or else the summer holidays. So, 30th May or Tuesdays from 25th July onwards. I’m not sure if anyone who’s likely to come still reads this blog, most ex-bloggers are on Facebook and other platforms, but the invitation is always open and you’d be most welcome. So many of my dearest friends have been met through blogging and many of those have come to these parties.

May could be quite busy at the Zedery. Wink went to visit her friend Kamala in Chennai in November and will probably go again in the autumn. Kamala is in her 80s now and not very mobile, so would really love Wink’s company. Her daughter, son-in-law and grandson are hoping to visit England in May and, of course, would be very welcome guests here. And my sort-of cousins in Atlanta are also planning a visit in May. Dan died last summer, but his wife and daughter intend to visit and we’re all looking forward to that. It could be that everyone will turn up at the same time. We will not be fazed in the least if that happens, it’ll be great, whatever the timing is.