Bertie the terrier is washing Indi the spaniel. He has his paw firmly on her ear to keep her still while he washes her face. It’s rather sweet.

I took the dogs for a long walk this morning; they hadn’t had one since Baby Doc, Zig’s younger daughter, was here at the weekend. They’ve got the garden to go out in of course, but love to have a good run in the fields. I walked them through the village, the half mile or so to the ponies’ field and then carried on along the path before letting them off their leads. I hadn’t realised that the path would go down while the land went up and, as it’s rained a lot the past couple of days, the track was pretty boggy. So I went back and started again on the higher ground of the arable field.

The ponies were pleased to see me too and I gave them apples – other friends are giving them hay, though they’ve still got plenty of grass so don’t need much feeding yet.

Im catching up on a few emails but my apologies if I owe you a letter. I don’t hugey enjoy writing for long on the iPad, it’s the same reason I still use a desktop computer: that I don’t like bending over the keys. At home, I often sit in silence all evening doing very little, maybe reading. I simply like the peace, but I haven’t the ability to do much else.

Since ive been here, I haven’t had any alcohol and I rather crave food instead – over and above meals, that is. I wisely brought some Twiglets with me (if you’re a facebook friend, you’ll know I eat them rather frequently, sometimes instead of meals though I also often describe the delicious meals I cook for myself). But I usually resist – however, I remembered that Zig mentioned the very delicious ice cream in her freezer and – well, you can imagine. Zig herself is asleep at the moment. She wasn’t hungry earlier and I could see she needed a rest, so came down to do some work and have supper.