1. The drifts of pink and white petals drying in the gutters and flattened on to the pavement suggest that the magnolia on the corner of Belgrove in bloom.
2. It is warm enough that I forget my coat and have to go back and buzz myself in again.
3. Putting my fingers among soft leaves and soil and guessing which are weeds and which came from the packet of wildflower seeds.
1. The little rags of budding acer leaves, each one pencilled round in red.
2. We go through a maths revision worksheet about areas of shapes. I still marvel at how the area of a trapezium could be a+b divided by two and then multiplied by the height. I think I missed the lesson where we covered the proof, because I remember being allowed to 'discover' pi with a piece of string at the start of circle theory; and cutting up paper to show how the square of the hypotenuse can be made to fit into the squares of the other two sides.
3. The warm sunset colours on the horizon fade up to night, and in between you'd be hard pressed to say whether you were looking at orange sky or blue sky.
1. Jackdaws are nesting in a capped chimney that I can see from my desk. They hang on the brickwork and fold their blue-grey bodies into an opening the size of a playing card.
2. The tiny variations in the basic range hot cross buns from different supermarkets.
3. Turn and turn about, waiting for bedtime, we listen to each other's songs, and end up with Lightning Seeds Pure on a loop.
1. To start the day by finishing a book.
2. I'm sure we knew that the emergency kettle is a whistling one; but we'd forgotten since we last had it out, and it's a pleasant surprise to hear it calling from the stove top.
3. Sunday afternoon pause: no pressure to browse and buy.
1. Decongestants are a modern-day miracle.
2. As I wave her off, two things happen: our neighbour's daughter comes out of their front door; and a blue tit stops to investigate the tree in our front garden.
3. Watching a lot of builders in orange hi-vis and plumbers in matching T-shirts and a truck driver in green hi-vis negotiating the wheres and hows of a large delivery of boards and insulation.
1. Coffee with a few editor friends in the bright and airy auction house. The hour vanishes among a good brew and useful talk.
2. Suddenly, there are dog violets growing under the door step and between my herbs.
3. From among the washing up, the scent of the green tea I drank earlier.
1. Setting off on a train with some things to read and a bit of an adventure ahead.
2. I meet film editors, and script editors and all sorts of different people who tell me about their world, which as it turns out, has some similarities to mine. Occasionally trays of sushi and glasses of fizz appear at our elbows.
3. Stepping out of a hot room into the cool night, when a light rain is falling. Time to process what I've heard.