The pork is sizzling, the vegetables are browning and we have broad beans ready for steaming. I’ve also brought the tips back: you have to take them off to prevent black fly so you may as well eat them.

I would say it’s time to relax but after 25 years of marriage I know better. Just as I am ready to wind down and prepare for the coming week my wife is just winding herself up to start her week. The first stage is to give me a list of jobs for tomorrow. then she starts asking about jobs she thinks I haven’t done from last week. That’s when I go “to check the food in the kitchen”. It gives me ten minutes peace. Muttering “social media” is currently a good one too, though you do have to tap a keyboard to make it believable.

It seems like it’s time to get the begging bowl out again and start applying for grants. It will take a couple of weeks, we will spend a lot of time on it and we will eventually be told that there is a lot of competition and unfortunately we haven’t been successful in this funding round. we are, of course, welcome to waste more time and apply in the next round of funding.

Sorry about the cynicism but such is life.

I won’t bore you with a discussion of funding, or excuses about why we haven’t managed to expand or set up a retail operation or rob a bank. We just prefer gardening,working with members of the project and feeding weeds to visiting children. It’s a good life, but not a lucrative one.

So my solstice resolutions are (1) start applying for funding (2) come up with some bright ideas for raising money. If you have any ideas let me know. They have to be legal (though I’m flexible about this) and practical for a tubby middle-aged couple so no mountains and no long-distance cycling.

We’re going to be organising an autumn fair later in the year because it’s not only legal but involves cake. That’s my sort of fund-raising!

Ah well, that’s the end of my “social media” excuse – better go and check the pork.

Time for plans tomorrow…