This is taken from my mother-in-law’s small album of family pictures. It shows Bertie and Emma Cousens, my wife’s grandparents, with Dot’s mother (front) and father (at back). Also in the picture (we think) is Dot’s aunt Jessie. The picture would have been taken some time during the war – probably about 1943.

Had a great weekend at Blakeney with the Evetts, Towns and Maureen. Pauline was ill, so she and Gordon couldn’t come, unfortunately. Weather was pleasant, and Dave, Julia, Dot and I  walked from Burnham Overy Staithe to Holkham (after leaving a car at Holkham). Peaceful on the beach – hardly anyone about. After discussion, worked out the sequence of reunions so far: 2000 Old Sodbury, 2001 Blakeney, 2002 Blakeney, 2003 Old Sodbury, 2004 Blakeney, 2005 Ludlow, 2006 Blakeney. After the walk spent some time at Holkham pottery – gallery and cafe. New wine cellar and kitchen shop. Dave eventually decided against grand cru priced at £135 a bottle.

On the way home Dot and I called in at Big Blue Sky – a terrific gallery / shop on the outskirts of Wells selling only Norfolk things. Dot bought an unusual mirror for the landing. She has been busy in the garden for the last two or three days, but took Joyce to hospital this afternoon.

Played a really good game of chess on Monday to beat Dave Hall (graded 169) and finish the June Swiss on 3/4. Joint runner-up but failed to take the runner-up cup on tie-break. Never mind: good tournament (+2 – 0 = 2)

A lovely picture of my father-in-law, Oliver Cousens, discovered in a small album kept by his wife.

Midsummer is gone, and the nights don’t look any different really. Today is still quite close, but also windy and so not all that pleasant. This morning I went into the city for an eye test. Everything was well – so no explanation for why my tears burn like acid.

Dropped in at a revamped Prospect House, where the editorial floor looks quite smooth but has obvious defects, like no privacy, which is needed in a newspaper office – and most offices. Plenty of glass and carpets, except for the back stairs, which are as bare and unpleasant as they always were. Had a substantial conversation with Bernadette about Jules’ shorthand. She is in a corner with no door – rather sad.

Dot is at a garden centre, buying stuff for hanging baskets. I like to say that garden centres are like caravans and dogs – things the world would be much better without – but I am mellowing towards them. That doesn’t mean I would go to one voluntarily, though.

Here we are back in 1982, towards the end of our time at Holly Bank, Yelverton. David is about 10, and we’re about 37.

In 2006, it’s the longest and lightest day – still summery, though a bit cooler. Dot has been to London for a couple of days with Nafpht friends, and the clearing up goes on. I sorted out about 500 chess magazines and miscellaneous other stuff, among which I found my certificate qualifying me to be an assessor/verifier for NVQs. Just as well: if I’d been asked to produce it in the last three or four years, I’d have been in real trouble. Now, where did I put it??!

The World Cup grinds on, with occasional scintillating moments. Today Mexico were done out of a win over Portugal by the referee and some appalling finishing. Yesterday Michael Owen managed to injure himself within a minute by simply falling over – couldn’t suppress a sigh of relief, as he’d been playing so badly. Two superb goals by  J Cole (especially) and Gerrard, but amazingly the defence collapse and conceded two. Still, we won the group. Can’t understand why anyone thinks Ashley Cole is a good player. Beckham was also very average, and Lampard below par for him. Rooney livened things up without being fully fit.

One wonders exactly what it would take for Sven to bring Walcott on. Injuries to absolutely everyone else?

This is my cousin Ruth, eldest of Reg and Dorothy’s children. I am still in contact with her, now and again.

Now well into the World Cup, and today England play again, so we have the usual collection of loud-mouthed drunks on television who use the occasion as an excuse to parade their oafishness. In this case they were doing it outside the hotel where their “heroes” were trying to sleep, thus ensuring that they were well prepared for today’s match.

Should be interesting, although England were extremely uninspiring in their win against Paraguay. Nothing really exciting yet – too many teams happy to score, sit back and win 1-0. Usually they get away with it, which is why it was so good to see Australia score three in the last six minutes to beat Japan 3-1.

Yesterday Dot and I went to the Aldeburgh Festival at Snape, calling in at her old school on the way, as well as dropping on Julia and Allan. After a heatwave, weather has turned cool again, but Snape was beautiful as ever. We had a light meal (jacket potatoes) in the Oyster Bar, where we met Peter Anderson, former EDP sub – he left in 1988. The performance by the Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra was excellent, especially the first half, where they played The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and another piece by Handel. In the second half they lost the woodwind (two oboes and a bassoon) , which was a pity, but they ended with a superb concerto by Geminiani, who I’d never heard of. There was also a lovely oboe solo by Bach (not in person).

The drive home was marred by the usual suspects – people who think 45mph is the ideal speed for a good quality A-road, and other people who won’t overtake them. Home about 10.40pm.

Weather has turned very warm. Last night we went on a long guided walk along the river, looking at places where Norwich School painters had produced pictures. Extremely illuminating, but quite tiring. Went for quick meal at the Cafe Rouge – one of my favourite eating spots – on the way home.

Today we have been catching and tidying up. Dot is progressing apace with sorting out the garage, though it would be hard to tell at a cursory glance. I have a couple of boxes in my room to sort through, and several piles of stuff are earmarked for the tip, which should make a difference.

First World Cup game just finished – Germany beating Costa Rica 4-2 in an exciting game, using “exciting” in a fairly loose sense.  Not bad, though.

And the picture? Hard to make individuals out, but it’s taken at Jerusalem in 1980, I think: the Surrey Chapel party led by Pastor David Middleton. My mother is pretty much central at the front (dress even oranger than the rest of the photograph), and there are some other familiar faces.

My grandmother with four of her grandchildren – my cousins. On the right is Barbara, and next to her her brother Adrian. The other tw0 are Pat and Stephen. I think the picture was taken in about 1951 or 1952  at The Hawthorns, the bungalow in Poringland which was my grandparents’ last home together. It had a pump in the kitchen for water, and the ooutside toilet was not connected to mains sewerage.

We had just moved to Coventry. My youngest brother, Philip, was born there in 1952.

Lost in Switzerland – not this time, but it could easily happen. This is my mother (left) and her sister-in-law Dorothy on a mountain in Switzerland, probably 1982, when she went with a prty from Surrey Chapel. The picture comes from an album obtained from Paul, but probably originally Dorothy’s.

Today has been warm and sunny, and Dot has begun clearing out the garage. Some stuff found its way up to the tip. We went to see Vicky Myers, and she is obviously in a lot of pain, though she makes little of it. We’re organising a bit of additional help for her next week, so that she’s not immobile and alone in her house all day when Jared is at work.

Yesterday we had a great day with the grandchildren at Caddington, looking after them so that Vicky could get some work done. Lovely weather there too, though apparently it was pretty unpleasant here in Norwich.

This is not one of my ancestors, but a goosequarterer. If there is one thing the Internet is short of, it’s pictures of goosequarterers, so I am plugging the gap. I hope the goose was dead before it was quartered.  This picture was taken yesterday in the Great Hospital, Norwich, which also features in its grounds a swan pit. Does the RSPB know about this? I do hope not.

The Great Hospital is an impressive place. Dot and I were shown round it as part of the Waterways fortnight: we were in a group of about 20 which happened to include a guy from the last Developing Consciousness course and, even more surprisingly, a guy who e-mails me regular items for my column. Well, irregular items, more likely. Despite the antiquity of the picture on my page, he recognised me. There was no escape.

It was quite cold by the swan pit, and I noticed a complete absence of swans. This was strange because the swan pit is sadistically just not long enough for a swan to take off, and it’s surrounded by railings and a slope. So the swans must have developed a secret tunnel to the Wensum, where they appear in quite large clumps. Last Friday some lanterns were launched on the Wensum as part of the Waterways opening, and the swans were very suspicious of them. Today I wrote this poem:

LANTERNS ON THE WENSUM

Dim, silken lights launch
silently into the twilight
barely breaking the lukewarm surface
of accepted lies –
inconstant stream,
damp, forceless field
filled with mud and weeds:
a trap for swimmers

The lanterns float out quiet but insistent
still small voices
confronting unseen storms –
holes hidden in the featureless river
that masks eternity

In the flat tide they seem to fail
but swans from the nearby pit
dark angels robed in deceptive white
see them for what they are –
draw back

There is power in the smallest light
floating in dark matter
resurrecting reality
drop by drop