Another broken night

Louis got me up at half five last night, which is better than four but still not great. I still think he’s lovely though.

I spent quite a while today revising my talk for Heydays on Wednesday, making it more upbeat.  I might be depressed but I don’t need to make everyone else miserable.

The beauty of it is, if it goes well, it’s eminently adaptable to almost any audience. If I  change the readings I could even go back to the same group a year later.

The next instalment of my column is also almost ready to roll, and my north and south story is well underway. Took Louis to Temple Newsam park this afternoon as I needed a break. When we arrived, he managed to run off before John (my lodger) could grab him. Louis likes to play catch me if you can and was dodging around the car park thinking this is great fun while I was having kittens in case a car drove in.

Using a pincer movement, we managed to catch him before any harm was done, but that’s a lesson learned – next time put his lead on while he’s still in the car.

Before dinner, I forced myself to go outside and plant the last sorry looking courgettes and tomatoes. Then I found room for some black kale  and planted out some rudbeckias, and a gloxinia. So long as I feel up to it, I’ll do another hour after dinner and have a go at some of the weeds. The potatoes need earthing up too. Shame I can’t remember which ones are the earlies and which are the main crop!