1. It's Palestrina week on Radio 3, and I'm very much showing up for hours and hours and hours of polyphony.
2. Through the trees, a glimpse of the mauve orchid spires among the grass on the other path.
3. I find the wide belt I have been looking for all day. I put it on. It isn't comfortable.
1. Folding and bruising herbs from the garden for snipping into the soup.
2. Cracking the top off a beer bottle -- refreshment to help with cooking supper.
3. The Early Music Show bases its playlist on the diary John Courtney, who lived in Yorkshire in the second half of the 18th century. With a cry of ‘musick is better than cards by far’, he leapt joyfully and with both feet into the local scene, both as a participant and a listener. He sounds like the sort of person whose enthusiasm encourages and cheers the creators, performers and artists around them, and it's a pleasure to see such a one remembered.
1. I've been sneaking off to read Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree. It is very pleasant to disappear for a short time into a skilfully drawn seaside world.
2. Confirmation messages -- your parcel will arrive today; your taxi is on its way; it's outside; is that you trying to log in; we've got your order; your food is being prepared; it's been dispatched; it's at the door. It's a lot, but I value the constant background noise of reassurance; and I like to delete the lot at the end of the day.
3. Was braced for a bad news phone call; but it's only a small change, and nothing we can't deal with.
1. I stop for a moment to watch the wind shaking the grass heads in all their variety. I should, I suppose, try to learn them now I've noticed this array.
2. The fleshy colour and reddish cap of a jay on an oak branch over my head catches my eye. In the undergrowth, another bird is protesting with a call that sounds like knocking pebbles together.
3. Six black dots to the right of the path. Noses and wet shining eyes of two deer looking up from their grazing.
1. The shadow of a ladybird larva on a leaf above my head -- clinging on despite the wind's shaking.
2. Turn my head, at a blackbird's alarm. Catch sight of a buzzard launching itself out of the scrub.
3. Soothing lists of names and places in The Cattle Raid of Cooley as I am reading myself off to sleep.
1. Half-awake, half asleep, I can smell the heat on her curling wand.
2. The new prescription in my glasses is a large jump, and it's taking a bit of getting used to. Even a short walk or an hour of work leaves me feeling seasick. Luckily I've got six episodes of Letters from a Long Marriage lined up so I don't mind taking half-hour breaks as needed.
3. We are talking about communicating better as parents, and the youth workers admit that they love hearing teen gossip and drama.
1. I'm here at the table distracting myself with my phone so that she can teach herself to cook in peace and security.
2. I grew these herbs and cut the stems and hung them up in the kitchen to dry. Now I'm breaking them into storage jars for tea and for cooking, and I'm thinking you don't get much volume of dried herb for that work. Meanwhile, in the garden, the mint has put up new growth, ready for cutting again.
3. Our red brick garden path is scattered with white daisy petals.