Little bit of a hiatus there. When you get home after a holiday there’s so much to do – in this case, so much still to be done as well. On Monday it was my brother’s birthday, and we spent much of the evening round at their house. My other brother, meanwhile, has had to be taken into hospital for a while – but the prognosis is not too bad.

The car has been serviced, and I’ve been to Cromer and Halesworth on training missions. And most important of all, we’ve spent a day down at Caddington with D and V and the grandchildren. Unfortunately V has not been at all well – genuine flu, I think – but the others seem OK. Grandchildren growing up fast and delightfully.

Yesterday I could have gone to Lowestoft for a Christian Writers’ meeting, but in the end I settled for catching up with some work and watching bits of rugby on TV. Ireland threw away the championship by attempting to get another try at the end and allowing Italy to get one instead. As it turned out, kicking the ball into touch would have done it.

Nice evening with friends last night, and a good view of the Cow Tower while putting the education world to rights.

Sunny and quite warm weather during most of the week has now turned to very cold, with sleet.

The picture is of an ibis, taken at Tarpon Bay, Sanibel Island, home of Doc Ford in the Randy Wayne White thrillers. This particular bird, with three friends, was hanging around the bait bin, hoping someone would forget to put the lid back on.