1. Nick opens the shutters, letting in grey-yellow light. 'There's a rainbow,' he exclaims. Bettany and I get up to look.
2. We've been waiting for this sad news all day, and it's almost a relief when Alec comes back into the kitchen after supper to say that the Queen has died. We stop and put the radio on. The soothing all-channels BBC national crisis coverage helps us into the new reign.
3. It's been a week: two PMs, two monarchs and we're facing down a cost-of-living crisis. But the houseplants still need watering, and so I fill my little watering can with rainwater and pick up my orchid spray and paintbrush.
Photo by Ryan Johns on Unsplash
