Yes, it’s still warm: in fact it’s getting warmer. Yesterday it was almost painful walking up into the city to go with Dot to get some Canadian currency from M&S: she had been to Jarrold’s for some nail work. Everything seems very hectic at the moment. The Hendersons came round in the afternoon, and in the evening I played my annual chess game in the club knockout tournament. That’s usually it, but unexpectedly I won; so I have to play another game when I get back from Canada.

This morning Linda is cutting our hair, and then we will go out and buy another suitcase for Dot: the ones she has appear to be either too big (for the airline) or too small (for her). Then we will pack, and this evening, insanely, we are going round the Greens’ for a meal.

Last Friday I dithered between going to Halesworth for a poetry evening and going to Martin and Sam’s for a cocktail evening for the two churches. I decided on the latter, which was probably right. I only had one cocktail, because I had to drive Dot home. She had arrived late because she’d had a busy day. The Smiths have a cocktail bar in their garden, which was quite entertaining. Spent a long time talking to the Eastons, and the vicar was there too.

Continuing the social whirl, on Saturday we took Judy to Vicky Myers’ house-warming in Costessey. This was quite pleasant, although we didn’t know most of the people, who were at least a generation below us, with small children. Buffet eaten in the garden, mainly. Nice house but up a sort of private track with limited parking. Helen Street was there with Florence and Mabel, but she appears to have discarded her latest husband, who was a nice bloke, and probably still is.

Kristine came on Sunday morning, and was met off the train by Dot while I was preparing to the lead the service. The two of them arrived at church just in time, and Dot even played violin! The vicar was in attendance to see how we did things and definitely not checking up on us. Oh no! Actually she seems very nice and also seemed to enjoy herself. Howard preached, and we had two cakes afterwards : birthday cake by Anna for Phil and golden wedding cake from us.

After lunch I took Kristine for a walk because Dot had a stomach upset. It was pretty warm, but we went by the river and then up to the Cathedral. In the evening Dot was better and we all went to the Seagull at Lowestoft, where I did a couple of songs (one with Dot) and three poems – one of them the poem I had written for David Coomes, which Kristine found quite moving. [Woman in the Window, Didn’t Think it Would Come to This, Coming to Life, The Third Field and Passing Through]

Kristine stayed the night, and I took her to the station, where she caught the 11.30 while Dot was in the city (see first paragraph).

Still quite warm in Norfolk: a long time now since we’ve had rain. So we’ve been making use of our garden to entertain people. Last night our neighbours Des and Chris came over for supper, preceded by drinks outside.

Much of the food (though not all of it) had been surplus to requirements on Tuesday, when we celebrated our golden wedding again – this time with friends from church. We decided to order a selection of party food from Morrisons, which didn’t turn out quite as anticipated, as they sent it to Northampton by mistake.

The staff at our local Morrisons couldn’t have been more apologetic, rushing round to get as many of the items as they could off the shelves there, and substituting what they couldn’t. Most of the substitute items came free, and Dot also got a bottle of Prosecco and a bunch of flowers. Result: complete lack of admiration for Morrisons’ organisation of party food orders, but loads of admiration for their staff in Norwich who, to be fair, must have had the authority to deal with us as they did – which does say something about the company.

Anyway, we had more than enough food and a really nice evening, ending with a Lindisfarne compline, slightly adapted by me. Almost all the congregation attended.

In between these two evening extravaganzas I went by train to Coventry to see Andrew. The journey went well, and I was able to get the 1830 out of Liverpool Street to Norwich because the 1900 was cancelled. I had an off-peak ticket, but was able to use the 1830 because it was substituting for the 1900. Happily I had arrived at Liverpool Street before 6pm so was in a position to take advantage.

Andrew was quite chirpy  at first: we had a long talk in his room and then went for a walk into the city (not too far). After a while he decided he wanted an ice-cream and got quite het up when we couldn’t find a shop that sold them. He also seemed pretty exhausted; so we walked home in short stages, sitting down to rest several times. He got over it once we were back at Minster Lodge and I had managed after much fiddling around to get his DVD to work. (Paddington 2)

David has been in Canada since Monday and will be there for six weeks. Amy is on her way home from a school trip to Germany as I write, and she and Oliver will be off to Ireland tomorrow.

Last Sunday, after another experimental Communion, I walked up to Kett’s Heights in the heat to watch a performance by Crude Apache of Turning of the Tide, which is a new play about the wherrymen. Dot was too tired to make it, but it was really good (as they always are). Happily they will be putting on an expanded version at Dragon Hall next year. They made good use of the space and walked through the audience, which was fairly thin – possibly because the afternoon also featured the men’s singles final at Wimbledon and the World Cup Final.

I watched the latter on my return. It was quite a good match, though a little unfair on Croatia, who probably played better for most of the match but lost 4-2. The penalty given against them was heavily disputed by all the pundits, but I actually thought it was a penalty. So I find myself in the minority yet again.

Have had several e-mails from my cousin Ann in Liverpool, who has not been well since the death of her husband. She wanted some pictures I’d taken when she was in Norfolk, and I sent them off to her. They were taken in 2008 and 2014.

Another warm and sunny day, following a few cloudy ones. I’ve just been up to the little park because Mairead called to say they’d installed a Book Swap cabinet. Spoke to Crispin from the Library Wood Collective and said I’d supply some books, though I suspect the cabinet may be ripe for vandalising. Hope it works.

Have just about decided not to go to Hellesdon Paston event today, because I have a lot to do, and England’s World Cup third round match is on at 3pm.

Highlight of the week undoubtedly was my birthday on Thursday, when Dot took me out to lunch without telling me where we were going. It turned out to be the Blakeney Hotel, and the lunch was delicious. I had a ribeye steak, followed by an exotic fruit plate with tuille, which was terrific – almost as terrific as the large glass of claret I had with it. Afterwards we walked to Morston and back, which was no small achievement, ending with tea in the upstairs lounge at the hotel.

Really love the whole area around Blakeney.

Just got back in time for the licensing and installation of our new vicar, the Rev Sarah Quantrill, who seems really nice. Dot played violin, but I stood down from guitar duties, partly because I had to present the vicar with a Bible (in conjunction with John Easton). Rather thrown by John getting the words wrong, but I think we got away with it, because I didn’t mention the war. Rather jolly nibble-fest afterwards.

Yesterday, after Dot got good news about her knee from the nurse, we popped over to North Walsham to see Jessie, who seemed a little frailer than usual but still made a good cup of tea. Afterwards Dot and I called at Sainsbury’s before going to the cemetery, then driving home via Wroxham, which was full. Neither of us have got into Wimbledon this year (too much worship of the tennis gods), but I caught the end of the longest singles match in the history of the universe (well, Wimbledon), when Kevin Anderson beat John Isner 26-24 in the final set.

Going back a bit, I preached at the service last Sunday, mentioning David’s funeral and “there’s a crack in everything”. Full congregation of about 20, including two visitors. New vicar came for coffee before the service, but didn’t stay. Afterwards we went up to St Luke’s for a rehearsal for her installation. Not really happy with playing guitar for various reasons.

On Monday we had a long overdue meeting of the Footprints Steering Committee, held at the Maids Head, where I failed to take the opportunity to find out what happened in Aylsham, when Past Alive were supposedly left stranded. Other than that the meeting went quite well, though I wasn’t feeling too good, for some reason. Had recovered by the evening, when Dot and I went with Angela and Rodney to Coast to Coast, an American restaurant on Riverside, which turned out to be surprisingly good. I had a rump steak which was beautifully presented and also tasted excellent.

The weather is still very warm, and it was particularly warm on Wednesday, when Dot and I travelled to Leyton for David Coomes’ funeral. David (Lenton!) also came: we met at the cemetery.

The Requiem Mass was a little strange, but the highlight was three Leonard Cohen songs played instead of hymns: You want it darker, Anthem and If it be your will. Couldn’t have been more appropriate. The chapel was full and included such broadcasting “names” as Michael Buerk, Michael Portillo and David Starkey. No wonder the priest looked nervous. All three wives were there, but the first two were not mentioned in the eulogy. I thought Anne might have been hurt by this, but amazingly she wasn’t. Not sure what Jennie thought.

This was followed by a hot, dusty and longish walk to the burial plot, where I chatted with Kristine’s family and Jane’s, and then a longer walk to a pub on Leyton High Street for the wake, which was attended by a large number of people. I saw David Starkey talking to Jane, which must have been interesting. I spent some time talking to Deborah, a friend of Kristine’s who had never actually met David but had got to know Kristine through cancer treatment. Also had a long chat with Kristine herself.

Some very nice food and wine, and we left just after 3pm to catch the 3.30pm from Liverpool Street. Unfortunately I forgot the funeral sheets and newspapers and had to go back for them, which resulted in our catching the train with roughly ten seconds to spare. We had come down on the 8.30 from Norwich, which got us to the cemetery via the Central line in good time. David got there in good time too, despite a train cancellation.

The previous day I attended the Archant coffee morning. Dot was at a school, as was Paul (not the same school), but the rest of the usual suspects were present, including Maryta. Afterwards I had my glasses tightened. Later still Dot and I had our hair cut, and in the evening we watched England beat Colombia on penalties in the World Cup, which just goes to show.

On Thursday I attended a meeting of the trustees and re-enactors of the Paston Heritage Society. This promised to be quite fraught, as Lucy had had to be dissuaded from coming, and two or three of the re-enactors were quite angry at the way she’d been treated (or allegedly treated) by the UEA and the Footprints project manager. I had fielded long calls from Ruth, Diana and Lucy herself.

During the meeting, however, it became clearer what had happened – Lucy just couldn’t deal with the requirements of the project manager, and there was a big personality clash resulting in her resigning and almost simultaneously being asked to depart (from the project). The re-enactors were reassured that Lucy was still part of the PHS and they and she could work on projects not formally part of Footprints. We’ll see how that goes.

In the last couple of days my proud walking record had fallen by the wayside. I completed 37 days of walking over 5000 steps a day, and in the last couple of days have walked far fewer than 5000 in total, partly because my knee was feeling a bit odd, but mainly because I was very tired. Still am, actually. I keep waking up just after 6am for no apparent reason.

Am writing this at shortly after 5am, because I can’t sleep. So much going on recently, and now Dot’s computer has run out of memory; so she can’t use it. I’ve been trying to work out how to solve the problem, but we may have to go to the Apple store later. This after another hectic weekend, and a busy couple of days coming up.

On Thursday last week I went up to Hungate to see a performance by Paston students of their self-written, self-produced take on the early Paston Letters. Rob and Penny were there, as was Matt. It was really very well done, with plenty of song and dance, and not too long. Pitifully small audience, though.

On Saturday we eventually found Barningham Hall, which is not in Barningham but Matlaske. Following verbal directions from Rob, we went straight to the right entrance, but it was unmarked and looked so unlikely that we rejected it, but we eventually came back, and gave it a shot. Needless to say, it was right.

The Hall, owned by the Courtaulds, is the only Paston house still standing in its original form. It was built by Edward in 1612. We were there for a Musical Celebration by the Cantilena Choir in the nearby Barningham Winter church, to mark its restoration. Beforehand we had drinks and nibbles in the “sun” outside the hall, but although the front of the hall was bright and warm, the side where we gathered was in shade and quite breezy. Still, a nice experience. Rob, Penny and and Peter were there. We sat in the gallery in the church.

The next day we went to church and then in the afternoon to North Walsham, where Dot’s “aunt” Sheila was celebrating her 90th birthday with a rather nice afternoon tea at the Roman Catholic church hall. Obviously we knew very few people there except Sheila herself and her daughters Teresa (who organised it) and Bridget, but we had a good time. Even the singsong at the end wasn’t too bad, and included The Fields of Athenry. 

We left a bit early to drive to Blakeney, where we picked up a shirt I had left at the hotel and had an ice cream. Then we returned to North Walsham for an evening concert at the church, where we were VIP guests (again with Rob, Penny and Peter). This was a Paston-themed concert by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, who I have to say were absolutely brilliant. It featured a new pocket oratorio (Agnes) by a Norfolk composer, Sarah Rodgers. Soprano Julia Doyle was accompanied by the church choir, and that was really good too. Plenty of Handel, a bit of Mozart and Purcell, and some other music. I have rarely enjoyed a concert more.

Yesterday the Mazda 3 went in for a service (no problem), and Dot took me into town to buy a couple of pairs of trousers. Bus both ways, because it was pretty hot, and my knee was giving me a bit of trouble. No idea what’s caused it. In the evening we had a PCC meeting, preceded by meeting our new vicar, Sarah Quantrill, who seems very pleasant. The meeting itself was well chaired by Sue Pittam-Smith but largely concerned such tedious matters as safeguarding , solar panels and parish shares. I guess that’s what PCCs are all about.