Summer seems to have arrived. Today is warm and mainly sunny, and I’ve already been out to Mundesley for a meeting of the Paston Heritage Society trustees – the first, amazingly, since last December, though there have been plenty of Footprints meetings in between. Happily I have already done the minutes, despite suddenly getting some floaters in my eye to go with my slight headache, uneasy stomach and heavy legs.  I have also booked a first-class ticket to Warwick to see Andrew tomorrow, after checking that he would be there.

Yesterday was a mixed day. The highlight by a mile for me was taking Jessie to the crematorium at St Faith’s to mark her wedding anniversary. We took a rose for Frank and viewed his entry in the memorial book. We then sauntered round the gardens, which were much more extensive than I thought, played Poohsticks and then sat by a lake before returning to North Walsham for tea and egg custard. Lovely.

Afterwards I went to Northrepps by several circuitous routes and delivered some pictures to Brigette, avoiding her partner and dog. Meanwhile, Dot was in London with Anne, celebrating the latter’s birthday by visiting the Shard and drinking champagne, among other things. They arrived back just before 11pm with makeovers from Harrods.

Earlier in the day I had been to the doctor’s – a highly unsatisfactory visit to a female doctor I hadn’t seen before and who wanted to give me statins, which I declined, and then more or less insisted I upped my blood pressure pills. She wasn’t interested in any of the things I wanted to raise with her (see first paragraph), and I left feeling pretty depressed, though my spirits were raised by a conversation with my neighbour Mary, and later with my son – until I discovered I’d booked a holiday in Scotland when he and the children might otherwise have come up to see us.

In other news, we had another meeting on Monday of the inter-church group which discusses the similarities and differences between the three congregations in our parish, and on Sunday I preached at church. The day before we spent mainly at Bury St Edmunds, partly trying to park and partly enjoying Matthew Creber’s wedding to Lynda Davies. Matt used to play piano in our group at church and lived with us for a month. He is now training for ordination. Also there – Heather Cracknell, preaching, and her family: Paul, Rhianna (13) and Finnan (10).

Those who know Matt will not be surprised to hear that there was a chaotic element. The service went so slowly that we were afraid we wouldn’t meet our afternoon engagement with Audrey and Bent at Côte Brasserie, but in the end it worked out (after a phone call), though we missed refreshments at the church afterwards. We had a nice meal with Audrey and Bent and then went to their house for a cup of tea. We weren’t invited to the wedding reception, but to the evening do, which started at 7pm. We got there at 7.45pm to find that the Reception was still in full swing, the best man’s speech was in progress and there were too many people in the barn.

Happily we entered close to where the Cracknells were sitting, and there were spare seats at their table because a family with young children had left. We even got some drink and a dessert, plus a cup of tea/coffee.  We left not long into the dancing, though, and encountered a small deer by the side of the road on the way home. (We were on our way home: I don’t know where the deer was going.)