Shut in, three quick strokes and event.

1. I'm with the glossy white-haired ladies in hot pink and emerald green and china blue linen waiting for the department store to open its doors. The shop floor is as still as a stage set and I feel like I'm swimming among handbags because the atmosphere is so thick from the waiting. The PA announcement 'The store is now open' shakes the shut-in air and everything begins to move freely.

2. I have a quick dip in the bag of cosmetics that my friend has passed on for my daughter, and try out a nail polish. Three quick strokes on each nail, and a little stillness while it dries. It won't last 24 hours; but I miss the days when painting your nails didn't involve an appointment up town, and then another appointment a week later to have it taken off.

3. We've got a chat going for an event that is causing both anxiety and anticipation, and it helps a lot, taking the edge off the former and buffing up the latter.

Fruit box week, reels and repair.

1. Somehow the delivery of a fruit box is much more fun than the delivery of a box with vegetables.

2. I love the sound of all my cotton reels rolling to and fro as I lift the miniature chest of drawers down from the shelf. Nick's dad salvaged it from a flooded shop, and it's provided a lifetime supply of thread for two generations.

3. It's late and the light is not great, but I'm putting stitches as small as I can manage into a much-loved pair of pyjamas so they'll last a little longer.

Succession, fizzy water and sofa.

1. Her tomato plants are finished, but a vine with tiny spiked cucumbers reaches over the path.

2. I hadn't realised how thirsty I was until I took the first sip of my drink.

3. To sit on the sofa with our youngest between us.

Steaming, cold and drawn away.

1. After a night of long rain, the common gently steams.

2. The air seems very cold on my skin after the run of heatwave days; but walking and talking warms me up.

3. I have to stand on tiptoes to watch the black and yellow bodies bundling over the spoonful of jam I put on the back wall to draw them away from the open windows. 

Bees, tortoise shell and catching our attention.

1. Up and down the street lavender bushes are smutted black with bumble bees.

2. A tortoise shell butterfly is hanging around in the sunshine by the back door. 

3. Large painted creatures -- owls, snails and hares -- have popped up on the streets we walk most days. The bright, unfamiliar colours and the larger-than-life scale keep snagging on our gaze.

Start of the heat, finishing early and lights out.

1. It's not too long after 8am and I can already feel the heat in the air as I begin my walk on the common. My body responds to the warmth and the exercise by giving a little.

2. There are lots of tiny things I can do to make the hot weather more bearable -- and one of them is knocking off early.

3. As always, our radio hour is interrupted -- she would like Nick to go down and turn off her light.

Rind, clink and treat.

1. Loving the green on green stripes of the watermelon rind.

2. As I go up the stairs, I can hear from his room the clinking of a spoon in a glass yoghurt jar.

3. I enjoy an evening of beer and silliness with the Gluten-free Trio -- just what I need to mark the delivery of a novel edit and the start of the heatwave.