I arrived home yesterday, a little before half past five, and my darling eCat was waiting on the doorstep to greet me. She’s on my lap now, being loving and trying to pretend to be cool.

I had a good weekend. I left before 5.30 on Friday, to be sure of getting to the garage before 10 – actually there before 9, but leaving later could have meant long delays on the M25. I walked up to my friends’ house, having refused their offer to pick me up, because of the commuter traffic. It was uphill all the way, though most of it a gentle slope. The steepest hill was Tim’s road. I walked past our house. It hadn’t changed. I had a lovely day with our friends and another called in for coffee, which was a great pleasure. F was very kind in helping me to sort out the house when Tim died and I love her dearly.

The car needed new rear brake pads, so I had to wait all day to pick it up and didn’t get to the caravan until half past nine that evening. Luckily, the rain held off until I was indoors with all the baggage. I spent Saturday evening onwards with Tim’s sister-in-law and her husband, whom I’ve adopted into my family too. They fairly recently moved to Narberth and have had a lot of work done in the house this summer/autumn. This made it difficult to live in, so they’ve used the caravan as much as they wanted. It’s the first time we’ve seen each other since the house was sold, though, because they’ve been on holiday when I was down before.

Sunday afternoon onwards, I was back on my own, being quiet and peaceful. I went shopping in Narberth on Monday – it’s a very foodie place to shop, with two butchers in the little village street, two greengrocers and two delis. I went to the one with the best cheese counter, for Welsh cheese and butter and then to the Happy Planet store, which is run by a woman who grows a lot of vegetables, keeps chickens and has all the produce in big containers, for you to fill your own. She can’t make much money, the prices are so reasonable. I came out with a lot of food, including several flours, seeds, nuts, all sorts of things. Some of it still has to be sorted out, I have been busy with other things today.

Wink is off to India in less than two weeks. She had an anxious day on Monday. Luckily she found out in time, because there was no publicity until recently, but India withdrew the option to obtain a visa online. This is basically because of Brexit. There’s an EU treaty, which doesn’t cover us any more. So you have to fill in lengthy forms, apply for an appointment, get more paperwork and go in person to get it processed. It’s actually worse than it was 20 years ago. Luckily, Wink allowed masses of time, because they don’t give leeway. There was an incident on the railway line and she was considerably delayed. It turned out, I discovered from the local paper, to be a pack of hounds that were being exercised, but some of them ran away onto the line and they were hit by a train, the one before Wink’s. Horrid.

She arrived ten minutes early, so hoorah for caution. All is well, though they’re going to post the visa – it is not possible to visit India on impulse any more.

This evening, I turned on the Aga. I think this is the first time I’ve waited until November, but it has been very mild. I’m so pleased to think I’ll come down to a lovely warm kitchen and be able to put away the toaster for the next few months. The family is coming over on Saturday for a bonfire and quiet fireworks. Zerlina had her braces off today and is very happy – her teeth are perfect now. She’s been so limited in what she could eat for the last 16 months, so has asked for pork crackling to be on the menu. This suits everyone except the vegetarian grandson, but I’m going to do hot pork rolls with crackling on the side, with bean burgers for him.