Having children’s birthdays two days apart makes a woman feel old, at this time of the year, especially once they’re the age that mine are. I had no idea what to buy them, so suggested paying for dinner out and babysitting to enable it, which idea has gone down well.  Dates are to be decided once the Easter holidays are over.

I was thinking about “favourites” – colours, seasons,  foods and so on.  It’s probably my famed indecisiveness, or maybe that I’m really quite easy to please, but I have never really had favourites in anything that I can think of.  Well, other than Saki, of course.  And Paradise Lost and Hamlet.  Anyway, I can’t say which of the seasons I do like most, but I suspect Spring has the happiest daily surprises.  One day I was looking gloomily at the muntjac-nibbled tulip leaves, two days later I was joyful when the flowers bloomed all the same.  And I look with real eagerness at the hedgerows every day, to see when the blackthorn is in flower, then for the first leaves of the may; and whether oak (for a soak) or ash (for a splash) will come into leaf first.  And then there’s frog spawn – and, indeed, tadpoles.

I watched Zain, the tabby cat drinking out of the pond this morning.  None of the barn cats came to be fed, though I know they’re all alive and well, because I saw the three black ones yesterday – Freddie came to snuggle up and the other two nipped into the barn – as well as Zain today.  They are evidently living off the land.  I do put a scoop of Go Cat out for them and tinned food if I see them – Rose’s cat Rummy often comes for that, which amuses us as he won’t touch the cheaper brands indoors.

Once summer is here, I hope I’ll be rhapsodising about warm days and leisurely outdoor evenings.  But for now, let’s enjoy the spring.