Big news of the day is that the big brown hen has started to lay again. I found two of her distinctive khaki eggs in the nest box this evening, so I must have missed it yesterday. They haven’t been off lay for very long, really, but I have had to buy eggs, which goes rather against the grain. I expect we’ll have poached egg tomorrow, either for breakfast or lunch.

The other sign of spring in the kitchen garden is rhubarb, which I’ve picked once so far. In the hedgerows, the blackthorn is in flower and there are lots of spring flowers, and blossom on the trees. Over the next few weeks, I’ll keenly notice each tree and shrub that shows its leaves or flowers. I love this time of year. I enjoy the small excitements.

It’s also birthday time between late March and the middle of April. Squiffany comes first, then Al and Weeza, then Wink. Then there’s a leisurely summer, with one birthday a month until mid-August, when eight birthdays and all the wedding anniversaries happen over six weeks. I mentioned Alex’s age to him, the other day, and he was surprised. He thought he was a year older than that.

Ro usually has to ask how old each grandchild is. I have a formula and explain it to him, whilst recognising that it’s not really a simplification at all. I tend to do that with any long numbers I have to remember as well – for example, my mobile phone number ends 3795, which I remember as 2×19-1 followed by 5×19. This evening at dinner, we were discussing the rules of precedence in mathematics, whereby you multiply/divide before you add/subtract. Tim was taught always to use brackets to avoid doubt and I think I was too, but that doesn’t always happen. I think it’s clear enough as I’ve written it, though.