1. I am staring at the meal deals in the minimarket when I realise that what I really want here is a coffee and a sandwich made in front of me. So I go round the corner to the sandwich shop on Castle Street.
2. We are very pleased to have a fangirl on the sofa, watching Stranger Things surrounded by Panini sticker debris.
3. It's the time of year when butter melts on toasted crumpets.
1. I'm into week four, and to my surprise, I'm doing triceps dips. Not very well, and I can't manage the whole forty-five seconds, but I'm doing them.
2. At coffee time, there's a book parcel -- one of my suspense edits, The Good Girl by Trish Dixon -- and the latest Fortean Times.
3. The biology teacher suggests a practical we could try at home and it feels like something we might have a go at.
1. I have just the right paper -- tiny Japanese pages, not much larger than business cards, printed with wisteria in full bloom.
1. It is a cold day with sneaking drizzle, but drifts of orange and yellow leaves bring bright heat to the woods.
2. The swish of Bettany turning in at the bottom of the ski slope.
1. I have to wait in the library for a few minutes and find myself flittering among the shelves snapping pics of books that I might like to borrow but will probably forget about.
2. We are nearly fifteen and not far off fifty, but we still stop to crack an icy puddle in the park.
3. I am struck by how much I like the ink in the pen I'm using. It's a Stabilo fineliner 88/62 called grey violet, and honestly, these dirty colours -- the drabs, the greys, the kharkis and the ochres are underloved in a world of brights.
1. I open the front door to take a parcel and am surprised by wet snow falling in rags and tufts.
2. A badger has given the edges of the paths in the park a working over, turning the soil and tearing up the grass in search of worms. It must be frustrating for the groundsmen; but I like knowing there's a badger or two about.
3. It's a cold, cold morning -- just right for serving hot chocolate.
1. The hot cup of tea waiting for me on the breakfast table.
2. My words aren't coming easily today, and I can't feel confident about anything I'm writing. But I try anyway. As long as I aim for clarity, stick to the sources and remember the reader, it will do. There will always be some days when good enough is good enough.
3. A bag of chips on the supper table.
1. The weather has changed and the cold is like a smack in the face.
2. I stop on our hill to compare the sky with my astronomy app. End up marvelling and gossiping about celestial matters with my neighbour and a passer-by.
3. I glance up as I lift the bin and a shooting star falls down the southern sky.
1. I start to say no because I've already eaten breakfast and I don't want the work of cooking French toast for everyone else -- but that's not what is being asked.
2. Day off. I drift between a memoir and a historical novel and a needlework project, half listening to the children's priorities: space ship insurance, a Ralph Lauren hoodie on Vinted, that brand of cola, what one might wear for a funeral.
1. In the early hours, I'm awake, all alone -- but I've got a new novel on my library app: a fenland gothic Saxon mystery called Mere by Danielle Giles.
2. My book order is one short -- but that doesn't matter, because I can come in again next week to see what stories and volumes I fancy.
3. Nick and I organise our work Christmas lunch. As a freelancer, I often feel a bit sorry for myself when I hear about other people going out for their work do. So this year, I did something about it; and now we're going out for a festive lunch in early December.
1. Volunteers growing out of the yellow clay on the edge of the building site: a castor oil plant with spiked green seed pods; and a couple of tall maize stems.
2. Alone at eleven -- drinking coffee at my desk out of a much bigger mug than usual.
3. With really good bright crayons and no particular expectations, shading doodled shapes to get a fake three-dimensional look.
1. My trousers are soaked after my walk in the rain. I put on a dry pair and feel the chill leaving my legs.
2. She has time for a cuppa and a sit-down.
1. I'm up in the small hours making a hot water bottle. While I wait for the kettle to boil, I lift the blind and see a fat moon and a single bright star.
2. Frying a little piece of fish in butter so the skin crisps up.
3. The food is already on the table. I am quickly chopping tiny bouncy tomatoes before supper, and it is not going well. Deep breath. Draw the knife across the steel; and now the blade leads the work.
1. We've enjoyed our box of squashes -- large and small, globes, oblates, onions and ribbed, and all the colours between lantern orange and murky green (plus one that is ghostly white) -- and now we're eating them, one by one. Tonight's is small and baked whole.
2. Waiting for a dental appointment and gazing into a terraced garden -- lollipop trees, narrow lawns scattered with golden leaves.
3. The finale of Celebrity Traitors is very, very satisfying.
1. This morning, there has been a soothing conversation with the financial advisor.
2. Some handsome but disappointing apples have been loitering in the fruit bowl. I bake them with butter and cinnamon sugar, and at pudding time they are rapidly moved on to a better place .
3. One of those unexpected evenings when the bed is full of children who want to talk.
1. Of course the radish described as blue is really purple. It's still pretty and crisp, though, and grates into a peppery salad for my wrap.
2. I have sifted through my bridge news sources, and think that I've got nothing good. But when I come to look at my notes, there are a few current, interesting bits, each with a trustworthy source. And that's enough.
3. 'We could always split a KitKat,' says Nick.
1. Some new baby news lifts the morning.
2. For lunch there is ramen with leftover leeks and squash, shreds of pork and shards of deep orange crackling.
3. Where the park's lamp shines through the wind flung trees, light and shadows shimmy on sodden grass and gleaming path.