Evening at Bramerton Woods End, after Geoff Saunders’ funeral.

Dot and I continue to make some improvement and have been out and about, purchasing a new sofa and a new bed from Oakfurnitureland. I don’t know what wood they’re made of – oh, wait…yes, I do. The bed will be delivered in a few weeks, but the sofa is handmade and won’t be ready till May. We looked at a leather sofa in another shop but hesitated at the last minute when the colour on the swatch didn’t match the sofa on show.

We completed the purchase today after reconnoitring on Tuesday. Today we also went to see Auntie Jessie on her birthday and had sausage rolls. Afterwards we went to the cemetery and also to the Rosary, leaving daffodils in our wake. After that Dot cleaned the roof of her car and then came in and had her hair cut. Me too, of course.

Yesterday we had a mammoth shop at Morrisons, and on Tuesday we went to Cake and Compline at the Archers’. A very pleasant evening, except that Bridget had a bad cold. The weather has been very cold too: snow in Caddington, but not here. Frost on the windscreen, though.

Monday was quite intense, starting for me with a Paston trustees’ meeting at Mundesley and continuing for both of us with a strange DCC meeting at Howard’s. We went through a huge amount of business – including my finance report – knowing that there was an elephant in the room. I think that’s the phrase. At last the vicar said in his closing points that he was proposing to set up in a civil partnership with a young Ghanaian who needed a visa to get into the country. We agreed to discuss it as a congregation in a couple of weeks’ time. Lots of disquiet.

Church on Sunday had been enjoyable, with a lovely sermon from Eleanor, and I managed to play the hymns without coughing. The cough is still lurking, however.