Meal deal, caves and macaroni cheese.

1. We could have packed our own sandwiches -- but instead, we opt for a supermarket meal deal, and let someone else do the work.

2. On the way home, we talk over our favourite parts of Chislehurst Caves -- I liked the guide's story about crawling through into a forbidden space behind a wall and coming back with a photo of a ventilation shaft. And I liked him dropping a stone into a pool of water to see the reflections on the ceiling. 

3. Nick has gone all-out with the macaroni cheese -- it has fancy pasta, greens, bacon and crispy bread crumbs -- and it looks so appetising at the end of an editing sprint.

Shower, sparrow and night before bin day.

1. The rain comes down in rushing spate, drowning downpipes and running in fans over the asphalt. Next time I look up, the sun is out, watery, but present.

2. Bright eye, sharp beak -- a sparrow lands on next-door's stone pineapple and watches me, watching back.

3. Front and back doors open. The draught and I sweep around the recycling boxes stacked up in the kitchen and all through the house bringing the rubbish down and out.

Heavy weather, play and grace.

1. The cosy sound of bad weather thrashing and beating the walls.

2. I've got time and space and bandwidth to play with the layout of my planner this week instead of relying on the same-old same-old. 

3. Even Watson has the grace to seem embarrassed at the end of The Copper Beeches -- yet another story where Sherlock Holmes lets a woman put herself in gothic novel-style danger and do all the heavy investigative lifting so he can swoop in at the last minute, make some deductions and take the credit. I'm not surprised the great detective spends so much time moaning about being bored and under-stimulated; and I would give a lot for a run of Violet Hunter gothic thriller stories.

Pop-ups, fences and communication.

1. Today, after a few damp days, the common is alive with mushrooms and what I learnt on the fungal foray last week has opened that kingdom up like a pop-up book. Troops of delicate Mycena gleam in the dark beneath bramble thickets, sulphur tuft crowds on rotting stumps, and hoards of others that I don't recognise (yet). 

2. We quickly catch up about his progress and it feels so good to talk with someone who sees your child as you see them, and who looks right through the stories we have had to set up like fences.

3. A single picture tells us she has stopped off for a half-term milkshake.

Flock, turn and cards.

1. A flock of birds -- chacking and calling to each other -- whirls across the late afternoon sky, moving like a single creature.

2. With one eye on the sky and one on my work, I note the moment day turns to night. It's not the sky that tells me though -- it's my computer changing from cold light to warm.

3. Across the pub, near the door, jolly people are holding fans of red playing cards.

Open space, weather and turkey oak.

1. Even a small bag of books given to Oxfam has opened up space on our shelves for new books that we might want to read.

2. 'This weather reminds me of our honeymoon,' says Nick.

3. The turkey oak has dropped its leaves. They lie so thick that we cannot tell path from lawn.

Gift, web and route planning.

1. As I leave the field, there's a rush of wings and a cackling, crackling cry. THUD! A magpie has dropped a dead vole at my feet.

2. We are both very pleased with the penny-sized spider who has strung his web in the narrow space between the kitchen and the jasmine well above head height and with the western sky behind.

3. She comes upstairs for help with planning the route she will take coming back from a friend's.