On Friday, it was Rufus’s 7th birthday – he was at school and his mummy and daddy took him and Perdita out for dinner afterwards. So Ro suggested a walk in a wood, between his house and mine, on Saturday. He’d checked it was suitable for a hot day – it’s described as a common, but I always think of that as fairly open ground. This really was a small wood, though. It was delightful and the children are always lovely. We met a couple with a spaniel, enjoying himself in the river and chatted to them as we admired and encouraged the dog and then roamed around, following Rufus’s choice of direction.

Today, I looked after a friend’s small children, as she was working (she’s a photographer and was doing family shoots) and we went to the park, after a while colouring and reading books. It was too hot to do such a thing really, but they wanted to go and find Mummy, so it was a distraction.

After they left, I had a nap. This evening, I took my dinner outside and ate it at the table on the lawn. It was lovely out there by then, I thought how much Tim would have enjoyed it and felt lonely. But that’s inevitable.