It’s official: we can get 13 people round our kitchen table. Twelve in the picture (after our ruby anniversary) and me slotting in on the left. From left going round: Jane, Philip, Jennie, Julia, Amy, Alistair, Lydia, Oliver, Dot, Dave, Vicky, David.

Major excitement in that our brown bin (garden rubbish) was emptied today. I suggested ringing up the council to tell them, but Dot demurred. She has been ringing up regularly to tell them it has not been emptied, so it seemed only fair.

More problems with the computer internet connection, so I rang BT, who tested the line. Unsurprisingly, it was OK. In the end the guy suggested trying it with the Ethernet connection, but I said I had, and that didn’t work either. So then he suggested changing the filter on the phone line. So I did that. I also removed the laminator from near the hub (it was switched off) and removed everything else from the electricity socket (time machine, scanner) and suddenly it worked, and has been doing so ever since. I have no idea what’s going on.

It rained extremely hard this afternoon, and has been unpleasantly overcast. This evening, though, is much brighter (at the moment). Dot has gone off to a governors’ meeting at Gillingham. Earlier we tried out my new guitar pick-up, which worked very well on a couple of songs. My stomach is still not right, so I have resorted to a high dosage of acidophilus, and have been OK for a few hours.

This morning the Higbees brought us a wooden bowl that Allan had made: very beautiful. They looked at our photos and stayed for coffee.