Another anniversary: last year was the blog party. We’re so sorry that we can’t see you this year and we have no idea when we’ll meet again. It’s also Rose’s birthday and her Dave (Lawrence)’s last day alive. She came home briefly, left again for the hospice and he died in the night. Lovely man, complex personality, brilliant mind and a stalwart friend. He is missed.

We hold our friends in our hearts and we keep going regardless, such is the pace of life. I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose someone at this bewildering time, but I hope that none of us finds out.

I’m not being morbid any more. Back to today. I planted out most of the seedlings I’d been nurturing in the greenhouse. The lettuces that had been lovely young plants have been pecked thoroughly by the chickens – I’d netted them for a week or two, but needed the netting for the young spinach. I hoped the chickens wouldn’t bother, but the little buggers did. So now I’ve put fleece over everything that might get attacked by any birds (there are a lot of pigeons and d’oves here too). We have kale, beans, chard and courgettes and I will plant out sweetcorn tomorrow and cucumbers and squashes next week.

Having had Zoom quizzes with the family for several weeks, we decided just to get together and chat today. And that was lovely and also interesting. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that Al, who is a postman, is living in a separate area of the house from the rest of the family. I had thought that it was the arrangements in the sorting office that influenced his decision but, in fact, it’s the incoming post. It arrives so quickly from all over the world. A parcel from Australia, in 24 hours, will have been handled several times in different airports and at least one depot, by who knows whom? The risk from his fellow posties is small but that from the post itself is random and unknown; though probably still small. He’d just feel too awful to bring it in to the family, so is taking the safety first approach. They do get together in the garden, in this lovely weather, though.

I was going to make asparagus soufflé but, in the end, made cheese soufflé with asparagus on the side. Paul the Fish is calling tomorrow and I looked for a fish’n’asparagus combo in all my cookbooks and drew a blank. So I’ll have to make something up. I still have two bunches of asparagus. I could make soup and freeze it, but the freezer is so full that I’m sorely tempted to buy a second one. Resisting by the skin of my teeth (???? seriously bemusing, that one) so far, but it’s not impossible.