Phil appears to have made exceptional progress following his operation and is now at home. The only problem appears to be that he has occasionally lost consciousness, but he thinks this is a temporary phenomenon. Joy is a bit more worried, but when I visited for about an hour today he seemed surprisingly well.

Earlier in the week I had seen him in hospital, when there was a chance he would go into rehab, but this proved to be not an option: he was making too much progress. Birgit and Joe were reluctant to have him at that stage, but now that he is fairly independent he seems to have decided not to go to Mattishall anyway. What a difference a couple of days make.

On Tuesday I had an appointment at the dentist because I’d broken a tooth last weekend. In the end I had a rather large replacement of a filling, which cost £144 and took some time. I went up to see Phil at the N&N, arriving just before 6pm and thus obtaining a parking slot easily. We chatted until Birgit arrived; I then rushed back home, just in time to be picked up by Judy for our monthly Julian meeting at Howard’s, which went very well as always, despite the fact that the first hour went by without Julian being mentioned.

On Wednesday I decided I ought to reconnoitre a few walking possibilities for the Blakeney area. I started out near Felbrigg, where I looked at a short cut, which appeared to be viable. On the way back to the car, though, I took a wrong turn and almost collided with an electric fence. That would have been a shock. As it was I just got very sore eyes from hay fever. This was the one day this week when it didn’t rain heavily.

I then proceeded to Beacon Hill, where I suspect there had been quite a lot of building going on since the walks book was published, and I failed to find the route at all, though I descended into West Runton and climbed back out again. I decided this was a non-starter for the Evetts and proceeded to Cley, where I had a cup of tea and apple crumble cake.

I then checked out Morston, where I found a kiosk dispensing tea and coffee at a key point, and then Stiffkey, which had a coffee-selling pub. I also found a beautiful spot there which opened up on to the marshes, and wrote  a poem as a result. Chatted briefly to a dog-walking woman, which I know you will find it difficult to believe.

When I got home I was too tired, and the risk of heavy rain was too great, for me to go to a PV for the Lasse Press, but I compensated today by going to en exhibition featuring my friend Rupert Malliin and a couple of women artists – Annie Brundrit and Sally Hirst. It was at Studio 20 on Wensum Street, and I walked there after Dot dropped me at the bank on Whitefriars to pay in some cheques.

Yesterday it rained extremely hard, which was annoying as I had to walk to the TSB to meet the new church treasurer at 3pm. Doubly annoyingly, this was in the middle of the England-Wales football match. The rain started on my way there, and I was pretty wet by the time I arrived. Happily and to my great suprise the bank was allowing people to borrow umbrellas; so by the time I got home I was soaked instead of drowned. It was really very heavy rain.

Later I called in to see Phil briefly while Dot was cooking the meal. It had stopped raining by then. The Evetts e-mailed to say they wanted to go to Sandringham. I hadn’t checked that.

Summer is taking a break again, though to be fair the temperature is staying fairly high. Pleasantly warm, anyway – just a bit too much wetness. Norwich got quite a lot of rain over the weekend: happily we were in Clare, Suffolk, staying at the Augustinian Priory, and the rain there consisted of a few scattered light showers.

Dot and I took Judy on the Friday afternoon; Bridget and David arrived for the Mass on Saturday at 10am, and Claire just failed to meet the same target on the Sunday, though she had lunch with us. Clare and that part of Suffolk are very beautiful, and there is an air of peacefulness surrounding the Priory, which dates from the 13th century. Residents when we were there were three ageing Friars – David, Aidan and one other – plus a sister, Eileen, and Mary, whose function was uncertain. There were elements of Father Ted about it, but only now and then.

We ate with the residents, and shared in the washing up. We were all able to go to morning prayer, evening prayer and Mass, and in fact I only missed Mass on the Saturday because I’d had a very bad night. Everyone was very friendly, and the food was excellent. The rooms were comfortable too. The walk into town was delightful, and there was a good viewpoint from the castle.

Dot and I went for a longer walk in the surrounding countryside, but missed the “official” track because the book was out of date, and the paths had multiplied. Still, it was very much worth doing. We also visited a couple of antique shops, one of which had a cafe, plus the tiny museum and a kind of fair celebrating the Queen’s Birthday on the Sunday afternoon.

On the Sunday we arrived back at the Priory to pick up our cars for the journey home and found we couldn’t get in to any of the buildings to go to the toilet. This created a slight panic in certain quarters, and Dot and Jude did a new tour of the town trying to find a loo that was open. Happily, they did. In the end.

Earlier we spent some time discussing the Augustinian Rule, but we also caught a glimpse of the Euro 2016 football, because there was an unexpected TV in one of the communal rooms. Two other visitors, Charles (from Sudbury by bike) and Jonathan, had birthdays over the weekend, and a cake appeared at one of the meals.

On Sunday we went for Mass in the main church, and it was a big affair – a first communion for five children. Beautiful building and a nice atmosphere. We left Clare about 4.30pm and got home about 6pm.

I thought I had got rid of the treasurer’s job, but today I got a list of questions from Ollie, most of which he could have answered from reading the files. I had to ring up the bank to get a form to change the signatory on the account, and needless to say they couldn’t do it without my answering questions that I no longer had the answers to. Exactly the sort of thing I was trying to avoid by resigning.

Meanwhile Phil has been languishing in hospital, recovering from his spine operation, and only improving slowly. However, Joy says today he is now making substantial progress and has been out of bed. She hopes he will be home at the weekend. When I say “home” I mean Mattishall, where he and Joy will be staying while he recovers. Birgit and Joe have a downstairs annexe on their new house.

While I was in Clare I got a Facetime call from Daisy and was able to talk to Andrew. He did not seem all that impressed and seems to expect me to visiting him every other weekend.

Earlier last week there was the usual Archant pensioners’ coffee morning, which Dot didn’t get to because she was on her way to a meeting that had been cancelled – e-mail failure at Diocesan House.  Later we had the usual haircuts, and the Hendersons came round for nibbles.

Summer appears to have arrived – sort of. It’s been sunny since Saturday, and on Saturday itself it was pleasantly warm. Since then there has been a chilly north-east wind, but it’s lovely in the sun and out of the wind.

Dot is in Dudley, but as the last few days have been packed with incident, I’d better start at the beginning. David and the children came on Thursday, arriving for a late lunch and just after a couple of Colin’s guys had departed after doing some painting. Following this I had to abandon them to take Joy up to see Phil, who is in hospital following his spine operation. Parking was a real challenge at the hospital, and I ended up on double yellow lines, but escaped penalty. Phil was in a lot of pain, but I understand there’s been some slight improvement.

After returning Joy home (and moving Phil’s car from the car park at the top of the road down to his house – an interesting automatic experience) I had a few games of table tennis with Oliver and then we all went to Prezzo’s for an evening meal. Bob and Mary were there too, but in a different part of the building.

The next day was still perversely autumnal, but Dot and I took the children to Wroxham Barns, where Dot got four holes-in-one at mini-golf, but Oliver won. I came last. After ice creams we proceeded to Fairhaven, where we had lunch and a walk in the gardens, which looked beautiful, with lots of colourful flowers. We returned in time for a meal before they set off for home.

After they’d gone and I was clearing up, I fell down the steps in the garden backwards and hit my head on the ground at the bottom, but not hard. The only real injury was to my right ankle, and that’s grazed and bruised rather than twisted. I can walk on it with no trouble. Very fortunate – I blame Colin for not instilling the rail.

Saturday was still cool at the outset, but improved dramatically during the morning, as we set up our bookstall at the church garden party. I say bookstall – Dot thought she could get rid of lots of stuff, such as clothes and shoes and jewellery and, to be fair, she did manage to sell some. We didn’t do too badly, and it was a lovely community event, with an art exhibition / competition judged by Martin Mitchell and a very good singer-guitarist called Roger. Judy and Jenny got a bit carried away with singing and dancing, I’m happy to say. We even got a bit sunburnt.

While I was manning the stall I got a call from the hospital to say they couldn’t reach Joy, and Phil was asking for her because he was in so much pain. She wasn’t able to go in the afternoon, but her neighbour gave her a lift up in the evening. Apparently the pain was partly down to the Parkinson’s. A couple of scans showed that the surgery had gone well; so hopefully the pain will ease off soon.

Fred and Sue Riches arrived in the evening, just after we’d had a meal. They had been at an event at Lowestoft and were simply staying the night before going to another one (Barry Brown’s 75th) at Dovercourt the next day. Nevertheless, Dot gave them some salad, and we had a good talk, partly about our church and my sermon, which I gave the following day. Fred and Sue had left after breakfast.

Dot left before 3pm for Dudley, where she is doing some P4C training today with Barbara. Apparently she had a good journey. I have no car, because when I took the MX5 in on Friday (accompanied by Oliver, and after unloading stuff for the garden party from the other car beforehand) it failed its MOT. It’s now unroadworthy and has to be repaired before I can use it, which I’m told is likely to be Wednesday.

On a more optimistic note, I have booked the Glen Lui hotel at Ballater for four nights on our way back from the Outer Hebrides. I’m also trying to book a hotel at Lochinver for a couple of nights, but am awaiting a response.

First day of June, and it could be winter. Cold and windy, with occasional rain. A couple of nights ago we had about a month’s worth of rain which, coming hard from the north and battering against the windows, kept me awake.

Today we travelled to North Walsham to take Jessie out to lunch at the Banningham Crown. Nice place, but I would be happy with half the quantities. Maybe the steak and kidney pudding was a mistake. Still, a pleasant excursion, followed by a pleasant surprise when I dropped Dot off at the Kett’s Hill roundabout and proceeded to the surgery, where I was told by the nurse that my blood pressure was down to 130/80, and now I have only my cholesterol to worry about. Obviously if I worried about it, my blood pressure might rise; so I won’t.

On arriving home we had a visit from Roger (son of Jessie) who dropped us off some information about our very own conservation area and its history. Interesting.

Earlier in the day Philip had the scheduled operation on his spine, and it appears to have gone well. I shall probably take Joy to see him tomorrow.

Yesterday Dot visited the same nurse as I did and got excellent news on her progress. Everything was first class – so good that the nurse couldn’t believe she was the right patient. Meanwhile I was entertaining Lily (Osborne) and Linda, who I used to walk home from church when I was in my late teens. They were both in fine form and liked the house. Talked at length over the old times and all that has happened since. They promised to return.

We had a surprisingly agreeable DCC meeting on Monday. Perhaps the most agreeable aspect of it was my dumping of six years of church accounts. Still no handover of current files though: the prospective treasurer is in the United States, which I regard as going a bit far. Hope to see him next week.

The previous day our service, which I led, was succeeded by lunch and a lengthy discussion about the future of the church – or to be more accurate, one aspect of it. I am not one for long discussions with more than about four people; so I didn’t enjoy it.  Afterwards we took Ann Travis home, and then watched television.

Not a restful week, but it was never going to be. And it seems to have done the trick. Although I’m quite tired, there’s now a very good reason for it, and my teeth are all right too.

We left on Monday, on the 0957 train for Nottingham. It was noisy, there wasn’t much room, and the weather was middling. The journey went quite well, however, and Dave Evetts was waiting on the platform to greet us. He took us on the shiny new tram to Toton, and we walked to their bungalow, on which the decorator was still working – the final stages of repair following its collision with a car earlier in the year.

After lunch we went for a walk in the park near the university, preceded by a brief walk round an art gallery and another tram ride. Afterwards we took the tram back again. We ate in. The weather was quite warm.

On Tuesday things became a bit more strenuous. We drove to a point near the Hemlock Stone and went for a quite hilly walk to a garden centre, where we enjoyed lunch before walking back a different way. This included quite a stiff climb to a triangulation point. Later we took the tram again into Nottingham, and after a drink went to the cinema and watched Our Kind of  Traitor, an excellent John le Carré adaptation released this month to middling reviews.

Following this we ate at Le Bistrot Pierre: excellent French food. I had chicken and chips, though it was obviously phrased differently. Then back on the tram again…

On Wednesday it was much cooler and with some rain in the air. We drove to Southwell, where we had a drink and then visited the Minster, which was impressive – all the more so because I’d never heard of it. It contained a stunning angel window and much else, including a new stained glass window focusing on the second world war (brilliant) and an equally brilliant series of stations of the cross in what looked like lead or pewter. And – coup de grace – in the chapter house was a seat with the name Lenton on it.

Out back there was another ancient building where kings and archbishops had trod, and some picturesque ruins. We returned to the refectory for lunch, then drove to the nearby Southwell Workhouse, which was a model of its kind, and which was well served both  by helpful human guides and an excellent audio guide system. In fact if it had not turned really cold and wet, it would have been wonderful. As it was there was some element of eagerness to get to the end (much of the tour being either outdoors or open to the elements).

In the evening we took a taxi to Stableford and La Rock restaurant, which was pretty close to perfect, for a restaurant. We started with cocktails and continued with first-class food, accompanied by excellent service. Expensive, yes, but a lovely experience.

Our final day at Nottingham, which started still quite cool but got warmer, began with a shortish walk to a nearby garden centre (anyone sensing a theme here?) for a drink, followed by a light lunch and departure by tram for the station – the Evetts accompanying us to the tram terminal at Toton Lane. We arrived at the station in very good time, and the journey home was more relaxing, though without benefit of buffet.

Today we were unable to lie in, because we were scheduled to meet the CNS Class of 61 at Carrow Road for a tour and lunch. The tour, led by Bill Punton, who I had watched playing in the early 1960s, was brilliant. I had the opportunity to take the manager’s chair at a “press conference”, but the highlight was undoubtedly Bill Punton’s commentary, which was a real eye-opener as to what went on when he was playing – much of it quite violent. No substitutes; so they were patched up and played on, sometimes with broken bones. Literally.

Afterwards we had a talk from Ray Houseago, one of my classmates who was company accountant at Carrow Road for seven years. He had some surprisingly pleasant things to say about the much-reviled Robert Chase, and much else too. Some very interesting questions. Afterwards we had a lunch that could just about be described as adequate if you were in a good mood, which I was.  One of the leaders’ wives was so incensed at the lack of quality that she obtained a group refund of 50%.

Happy to say Fred was able to come and seemed quite well recovered from his illness over Christmas and beyond. Sue missed the tour and talk but came for the lunch, which was followed by a quiz, at which our table did not really shine.

Feel absolutely shattered for some reason. I suspect endocarditis. You can put that on my tombstone if you like: “He said he had endocarditis, but no-one believed him.” My teeth are rather better, and the headaches are not so bad. We are off to Nottingham tomorrow by train for a few days; so it should be kill or cure.

Why do I feel so tired? No idea. I have just walked to St Peter Hungate and back to have a chat with Sophie, one of the trustees, about a Paston event there in October half-term week. It went quite well until I discovered (just now) that Rob is away for the October half-term. Before that we were at church for Communion and a quite reasonable sermon on the Trinity by David. We took Ann home in the car: bit of a struggle – she is pretty far gone now, and it takes most of the church to reassure her and keep her on an even keel. Still, she comes to church! Amazing.

Yesterday we took Judy to Wroxham for David Archer’s 50th birthday celebration – a river cruise to Horning and back in the company of many of his friends and relations.The weather was threatening, but in fact all right. Warm enough to sit on the top deck, and dry till the very end. Spoke to people we half-knew and didn’t know at all. Introduced Dot to the band, Stookey Blue, a folk music and ceilidh foursome (or more, sometimes) who invited her with her violin to their sessions on Mondays in Norwich.

The previous evening I had venture to Halesworth for the Pinky’s poetry evening and read three of my poems, which people seemed to like: In the Background, After hearing Adam and Behind the Tombstones. Afterwards spoke to Lizzi Thistlethwayte, who gave me a copy of her book if I’d send her one of mine. Since hers retails at £20, I sent her three of mine. That will teach her.

On Thursday a couple of guys spent most of the day installing new granite worktops in the kitchen. I have to say the result was even better than I’d expected. In the afternoon Dot went shopping with Anna, then Anna used the resulting produce to cook a meal for Howard and myself (and Dot and Anna, of course). We had a great evening there.

On Wednesday afternoon I enjoyed another meeting of the Paston trustees. The minutes are getting longer and longer. Not to mention the hours, the days… I have just managed to contact the guy who is taking over as treasurer at St Augustine’s, only to find he’s going to the USA for a fortnight. Aargh! Will it never end?

Cake and compline at the Archers on Tuesday was pleasant as always, though without Judy (holiday in Devon) and Claire (working).

Things seem a little fuzzy. This is partly because I have some sort of infection, I think, and I blame the dentist. After a check-up on Tuesday he said I needed some laser treatment to get rid of a deep-seated gum infection. He did this on the Thursday, and it was quite prolonged. I was also under anaesthetic for a long time, which I don’t think is ever good for me, where the rest of my head is concerned.

Since Saturday I’ve been feeling decidedly off colour, involving a stomach upset, what appeared to be an upper respiratory tract infection but turned into a kind of sinusitis, bad fatigue and an achy feeling. It reached a peak late Saturday and most of yesterday and now seems to be improving. I have managed to carry on, but that’s because I’m particularly brave. (Sarcasm alert.) I did cancel the Seagull last night, though.

Fortunately it was still bubbling under the surface during our visit to the Coomes’ on Saturday, and I kept it at bay with paracetamol. We had a good time there, with an excellent lunch, and as an added bonus Werder Bremen avoided relegation from the Bundesliga with an 88th-minute goal, and Kristine put on her W-B shirt.

Felt very tired on the way back, but happily Dot was driving. Went to bed early, and managed to rouse myself yesterday for church, which was just as well as I was giving the sermon. Felt pretty out of it for the rest of the day.

Earlier in the week, namely Friday, Dot and I went to the Wildebeest at Stoke for a meal to celebrate Anne’s birthday. Most enjoyable – had an interesting conversation with Anne (while Dot was listening to Philip) about poetry, books and similar matters.

Even earlier, on Tuesday, we had our monthly Julian meeting at the Greens, who are exceptional hosts. We walked there and back, which enabled me to sample several glasses of vermouth.  The discussion was also very good.

Forgot to mention that Dot and I went to Cley on Friday, when it was pleasantly warm (thought with a stiffish breeze on the north coast). Had our free tea and cake and walked out into the marshes a bit. As a result wrote another poem, which I probably won’t send to the EDP.

The church treasurership drags on. I will be delighted when I can dump all the documents and take no further interest, but I suspect I will be beset by queries for weeks and possibly months to come. Someone outside the church offered to do it, but things are delayed because the vicar wants a formal reference, which is pretty typical.

The weather has turned quite summery, as it sometime does during the first week or two of May. The last two or three days have been warm, which means the men doing our drive have been thirsty. Yes, they’re still doing our drive. This morning I had to get quite cross with Colin on the phone because no-one had turned up (again). As  a result they turned up after I’d gone to North Walsham – earlier than the revised promise – and when they opened the garage the alarm went off. Happily Mary was in and remembered how to turn it off.

They’ve nearly finished now. But not quite.

I was in North Walsham for a Paston Footprints meeting, some of which made sense. I am about to do the minutes. I gave Karen a lift back and after checking the house took her to the UEA. As I write, Dot has completed her course at St Albans, during which she did some RE Quality Mark training, and is on her way home. Last night she stayed with David.

Last Tuesday saw the usual Archant coffee morning. On Thursday we went to the Last Wine Bar in the evening with Paul and Maryta, which was a bit tense to begin with as there appeared to have had some sort of altercation with a waitress before we arrived (we were actually quite early). My meal was particularly good (guinea fowl breast). We went back to the Hendersons’ for coffee afterwards. The Hendersons are now in the West Country, primarily to avoid a party their next door neighbours were throwing on Saturday and which had coincidentally disrupted our drive-laying because Colin (our builder) had made some rash promises about laying huge amounts of turf and a patio. This resulted in his being somewhat distracted.

On Friday Mike came to take a template of the kitchen tops in preparation for our granite  overlays. It proved quite difficult to choose from the three he brought (which we had selected last time); so I hope we made the right decision. In the evening we had Eleanor and Mary round for a meal, which I cooked (salmon).

The long-awaited church Vision Day occurred on Saturday and turned out to be almost as dire as predicted.  In the end, though, Howard managed to get his ideas across  and everyone seemed much happier. Except me. I could see it all going badly wrong. But then I always can. By then Dot (and Steve Fiske) had left for Carrow Road, where Norwich managed to lose 1-0 to Manchester United despite having more chances. They are now almost certainly doomed.

In the evening we went over to Des and Chris’s house for drinks with Mairead and Freddie and Phoebe. This turned out to be fun; it was after 11pm before we knew it.

Yesterday we had a visiting preacher at church – the rural dean, Simon Stokes, who is from St Cuthbert’s and blind. He gave an extremely long but very good sermon. It’s not often you can say that.

Last Tuesday I was about to get in the bath when the man arrived to service our house alarm. He was one hour early, but I did manage to adapt.

On Wednesday I was up early again – this time to go to Coventry with Phil, who drove us in his Merc. Quite a good journey there, and we took Andrew to the Harvester at Allesley for a meal. This was going reasonably well until Andrew managed to get a bit of steak stuck in his throat, resulting in embarrassing scenes. He did survive it, however (not sure I did), and I walked him round the car park and then we drove to Corley and back to Minster Lodge, where we had a cup of tea. Staff as always friendly and helpful. Daisy was in charge; Helen away at another home.

The journey home was a bit more difficult: the A14 was subject to long delays at the approach to the A1, and we diverted via Kimbolton, Grafham Water and Papworth. This was OK, but when we joined the A14 again near Cambridge, there were long, painful  queues. Still, it didn’t snow.

Up early again on Thursday, partly to welcome Colin to do work on our drive and partly to go to see the nurse about my cholesterol and general health. The latter went well, but we waited all day for Colin to come, and he failed to put in an appearance. In the evening we went with the Hendersons to see King Lear – a very good production at the Maddermarket, with David Newham as Gloucester and Trevor Burton as Cornwall. The guy playing Lear was particularly outstanding, but there were so many deaths towards the end that I was worried that no-one would be left standing at the final curtain. (It was the first time I’d seen the play.) Afterwards we said hello to David and had quite a chat with Trevor.

Friday, and – yes, I was up early again to greet Colin, who again failed to show up. However, Sam and Gary eventually put in an appearance and demolished the very thick concrete by the garage, as well as the pillar by the wall. Colin did eventually drop in, and made various promises about when it would be finished, which, like so many verbal promises, were not worth the paper they were written on.

In the afternoon I attended David Paull’s funeral at Earlham. This was full of people I did not know, but fortunately Frances was there with her husband Bill, plus Gerald Nunn, and Eric from the Pensioners’ Association. Afterwards I did manage to chat to Richard Bond and Trevor Burton (again) plus one or two other trainees I’d forgotten, such as Matthew Clark, Dominic Castle and Julian Forde. The reception was at Park Farm, where I had a chat with David’s wife Iris as well as Frances and Bill. I knew literally no-one else. So after a few sandwiches and a prosecco I departed to pick up Dot from St Augustine’s Hall, where she had been assisting Anna and Carrie in an art project involving the Queen.

On Saturday we did not get up early, but did a large shop at the supermarket before watching (on TV) Norwich lose 0-1 to Arsenal despite, as usual, playing pretty well. Same old story.

Got up early again on Sunday to go to Carrie’s licensing service at St Luke’s, at which Dot and I were playing with Steve, Richard and Angela. Steve asked us to play a couple of our songs during Communion; so we have now played in front of the Bishop. Well, not exactly in front; more to one side. Afterwards there was bring and share lunch and I spoke to Barbara Bryant, who edits the diocesan magazine, among many other people. Outside, the weather was turning unexpectedly warm.

Afterwards we were about to leave to visit Jessie when Des came over and had a look at the garden (that’s not why he came over – that’s just what happened). This made us a bit late reaching North Walsham, buying flowers and visiting the cemetery, but we reached Jessie’s by about 3.40pm, which was OK as we were staying for evening meal with Roger and Debbie. Cod pie and a couple of delicious sweets, neither of which I was able to resist.

So that was nice. We got home in time to watch the grand prix, but fell asleep before the end. By the time we dozed off, nothing was happening.

Winter has returned. There was snow on the roofs this morning, and it’s bitterly cold, which I feel is pretty unreasonable, given the time of year. This morning I was about to get into the bath when the man arrived to service our alarm. He was an hour early – because of the traffic, he said. There wasn’t any. Apparently no-one could get into Norwich because of accidents on the approach roads. I took this with a pinch of salt, which is good for icy roads.

The Red Lion meal I alluded to went off pretty well, though sprats turned out to be something different to what I thought, and the halibut was only average. As we neared the end of the meal I caught sight of Sheila Greenacre having a drink with her husband David; she came over for a quick chat.

There was a cold north wind on Saturday; so Dot suggested going to Thetford Forest to reconnoitre possibilities for the summer – and to do a three-mile walk to boost her exercise ratings. This worked out really well, although the walk made us very tired. We had a sandwich afterwards – the tea and coffee were also excellent. The place we went to was called High Lodge, and it contained many activities, including walking at the top of trees, Segway, cycling, archery and, of course, walking. We decided it would be a good place to bring Oliver and Amy.

On the way home we called at the nearby Warren Lodge, which was the remains of a lodge for people who killed rabbits – formerly a big business in the area. Maybe not for Amy.

On Sunday we had a Communion service with the vicar which seemed really odd: a long, rambling sermon and a strange atmosphere. However, spirits were revived with Anna’s cake for Phyllis’s birthday, and we then gave the Greens a lift up to Unthank Road, thinking Grapes Hill would be OK on a Sunday lunchtime. Unfortunately Grapes Hill is never OK.

Nevertheless we dropped them off and escaped from the city in time to get to Beachamwell for lunch with the Knox Whittets at 2pm. Rob and Penny were also there, and we had a really good time. I unveiled my latest plan for a Norwich-Paston-Walk-with- Poems book, and they seemed to like it. Penny praised my new Paston poem, which just shows how perceptive she is. The drive home was very pleasant: practically no-one on the road.

Yesterday Colin came round early to look at the work we wanted him to do. As  result he will be resurfacing the drive on Thursday/Friday and repairing the porch at the back, as well as putting in a safety rail on the steps. I have warned some of the neighbours about the likely noise in the drive.

More excitement in the evening as we went to the annual church meeting, meal and entertainment. I use the word “excitement” loosely. Dot walked to the Greens; I picked her up and we transported Howard’s bottle of champagne to Simon, who had done a lot of work on the accounts. Howard went to see King Lear instead, though it was his last meeting as churchwarden.

We had thought it was bring-and-share, but it trend out to be Karen’s usual delicious meal, which made me wish I hadn’t had a crisp sandwich earlier. Before that there was a brief PCC meeting to accept the accounts. I abstained. After the meal we had some singing from a local celebrity, accompanied by a pianist who Dot knew from her orchestra. The singing wasn’t all that good (or all that bad), but the pianist was excellent.

Afterwards the annual meeting dragged on till nearly 10pm, and I abstained again. Then there was another meeting of the PCC to choose new officers, and I pointed out that I had resigned, as no-one seemed to be taking much notice. As it was getting late, not much was said, and so I’ve written an e-mail this morning to the vicar and churchwardens, pointing out that I’m not going to just carry on, as they seem to think.

Icy showers are persisting outside.