1. I've had half an eye on the forsythia bush over the car park -- and now it's got yellow stars all over, with more to come no doubt.
2. I'm trying to explain why I thought of using a mirror to bounce the view from the window into a more convenient spot in the room. 'Like in The Lady of Shallot. She lives in a tower doing weaving and she's not allowed to look out of the window, except through a mirror. Only she sees Sir Lancelot and looks out of the window anyway and then she dies. It's very sad.' I slip him a copy of Tennyson's poem, with Charles Keeping's evocative pencil washy illos. The view from the window is forgotten.
3. I teach her how to knead her pizza dough, and explain that it helped me to manage my angry feelings during lockdown.
'But who were you angry with? You were just with us all the time!'
