Spent much of the morning editing my most recent pictures, so that they look as good as they can when viewed on Apple TV later today. Yes, son and grandchildren are due to arrive this afternoon. I hope the wind is behind them, because I just got frozen taking some of Dot’s shoes into the city to be repaired. No problem on the way back. I got a hint of the iciness of the wind when I opened the door to the window cleaner at lunchtime and took several steps backwards. Glad to see the recyclists have braved the wind and emptied our brown bin. Nothing to grumble about really: the A93 between Ballater and Braemar is blocked by snow, which is very hard to believe: it is pretty much flat, though not at sea level, of course.

Dot is doing a school inspection today, and it’s 50-50 whether she gets home before David arrives. Yesterday we had our house alarm serviced, and I’ve changed the code so that I can’t get in. Sorry, that should read “so that other people can’t get in”, but I have already put the wrong code in three times. Dot was feeling pretty ropey yesterday until she had a glass of wine, when she suddenly felt better. That was after we’d done a mammoth shop at Morrison’s and she’d spent most of the day working on DSSO stuff and preparing for the inspection.

Wrote a couple of new, shorter Umbrage pieces and sent them to Anne to see if they would be any good for parish pump, but I haven’t heard from her yet. Last time she e-mailed she was not at all well, so perhaps she’s taking a break. Have also prepared the service on Sunday and led the meeting at Ed’s on Tuesday; so I’ve been reasonably busy. I have ideas for three more poems, but they’re just ideas at the moment.

Have now seen the last episode of Married, Single, Other, which is one of the best drama series I’ve discovered on TV for a long time. Beautifully written, acted and directed. Either the director or the actors knew exactly how to put the lines over, which means the writer was very lucky, or very good at telling them what was needed. Lucy Davies was superb, but so were all the others, including the lovely Miranda Raison, ex-Spooks and Norfolk-born. I hope there’s a second series: pity Lucy won’t be in it, unless it suddenly becomes supernatural or has lots of flashbacks.